GS25 Convenience Store Lunchboxes Vividly Capture Quotes from 30 Surviving Patriotic Activists

"Forget Painful History, and We Too Will Be Forgotten"
Campaign Commemorating the 101st Anniversary of the March 1st Movement This Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] An unusual campaign vividly delivering the quotes of 30 surviving patriotic activists through convenience store lunchboxes is set to unfold.

GS25 announced on the 26th that, in collaboration with the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, it will run a campaign from March 1 to 15, marking 'Samiljeol' (March 1st Movement Day), under the theme 'The sincere messages 30 surviving patriotic activists convey to us.' The campaign involves producing quote stickers and attaching them to all lunchbox products.

This campaign was planned to commemorate the 101st anniversary of the March 1st Movement this year and to promote the quotes that surviving patriotic activists, who worked hard for the liberation of the homeland, pass on to future generations, as well as to remember the spirit of independence patriots.

GS25’s campaign has evolved beyond one-way information delivery to enable interactive communication. The attached stickers feature QR codes, which, when scanned with a smartphone, lead to an interactive online platform called ‘A space to express gratitude to patriotic activists.’

Participants can check information about the patriotic activists’ meritorious activities in this online space and freely leave messages of thanks and respect. After the campaign ends, GS25 plans to create framed collections of the messages from participants and deliver them to the patriotic activists.

Currently, there are a total of 34 surviving patriotic activists registered with the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, of whom 30 participated in this campaign. Notably, the late Lee Dae-san, a patriotic activist who served as an independence army guerrilla commander and was sentenced to death in May 1945 before being released upon liberation, passed away on the 16th during the campaign’s planning phase, leaving a sense of regret.

GS25 and the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs will introduce the late Lee Dae-san’s last words, “If we forget painful history, we ourselves will be forgotten,” through this campaign and plan to dedicate the public’s messages to his portrait after the campaign concludes.

Han Dong-seok, deputy head of GS25’s marketing team, said, “It is deeply meaningful that a communication platform has been created where the noble intentions of surviving patriotic activists are widely shared and participants can respond. Through GS Retail’s more than 14,000 platforms, we hope this will be an opportunity for people to realize the importance of history, draw strength from the patriotic activists, and unite to overcome the national health crisis.”

Meanwhile, GS Retail has conducted five campaigns since Liberation Day 2018 to raise awareness of the independence movement history through lunchbox stickers at over 14,000 offline platforms including GS25 and GS The Fresh. To date, the messages delivered to the public through these campaigns have exceeded 30 million.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.