8 Asians

Korean Air targets you by your surname

By Ben | Wednesday, April 30, 2008

I thought it was a one time deal. Seriously. The first time I totally overlooked it.

But two barrages of snail mail junk is absolutely annoying. Korean Air has been pumping their US marketing up in the six months. Just take a look at one of the television commercials that’s playing here in the South. The Color of Perfection:

Now it might just be me, but the beginning of that commercial really doesn’t seem to tie well into the flight attendants in the end besides trying to make a color coordination. Somehow, I just don’t find flying as a “sexy” type of thing nor would I would associate a commercial with almost a designer cologne feel with an airline. Albeit an interesting spin on things I suppose. But I digress.

So about this snail mail spam. Why do I call it spam? It’s a direct mailing list based on your last name. I’m not exactly sure how they determine someone’s last name actually determines their ethnicity since both Chinese and Koreans use the last name Lee, and there are other names out there but it is what it is.

Before someone questions why I’m going off on this? I can’t speak Korean. I don’t read Korean. Heck, I’m not even Korean. And if there’s any sort of marketing that I happen to personally despise, it’s ones that target me based purely based on my last name. I mean, think about it. If my last name was “Lopez”, I seriously would hope that no one would send me mail that was entirely in Spanish unless there was some actual accounting that could show that I actually could read the language.

Photo Credit: (Drewski2112)

Other posts you might be interested in:

• What’s in a name? EVERYTHING - Cho Seung-Hui vs. Seung-Hui Cho
• Fan Death: South Korean Urban Legend or Scary, Scary Way You Could Possibly Die in Your Sleep?
• The Korean soundWave: indie Korean music
• Catching Up With the Joneses
• Onion News Network: China Celebrates Its Status As World’s Number One Air Polluter

Comments (3) to “Korean Air targets you by your surname”

1. John wrote:

   At first, I thought the tv ad was for a perfume. Odd that Korean Airlines would be advertising in the South. I would imagine more so SF, LA, NYC, DC…

   Posted on 30-Apr-08 at 8:37 am | Permalink

2. Justin wrote:

   Thank you! I wholeheartedly agree with your point on targeting groups by their surnames. I’m Filipino and I regularly receive mail targeted towards Latinos.

   Posted on 30-Apr-08 at 9:02 am | Permalink

3. Choi wrote:

   Haha get used to it, I live in Cerritos where there is a fair amount of Korean and Chinese population and I get tons of Korean marketing all the time. Funny thing is the Korean Choi is actually a different last name in Chinese 崔, the correct Korean equivalent of the Chinese Choi would be Chae 채 in Korean.

   Posted on 30-Apr-08 at 2:25 pm | Permalink

Post a Comment