[Column] GS25 Caught in Gender Conflict

The recently controversial promotional poster for the GS25 event.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Convenience stores have become battlegrounds for gender conflicts. GS25's event promotional poster has been embroiled in controversy over misogyny, sparking signs of a boycott movement. Although GS25 posted an official apology on its social media service (SNS), the controversy shows little sign of subsiding.

On the 1st, GS25 uploaded a poster on its dedicated mobile app to promote a prize giveaway event for buyers of camping food products. Online communities claimed that the hand gesture in the poster resembled an image intended to demean men, and that the moon and star design at the bottom of the poster was the logo of a university feminist society. There were also criticisms that the English phrase on the poster, "Emotional Camping Must-have Item," when combining the last letters of each word, spelled "megal," hinting at Megalia, a male-hating community.

As the controversy grew, GS25 deleted the poster and stated, "We take this matter seriously internally and will thoroughly monitor content that could cause controversy in the future, paying more careful attention and scrutiny." They also explained, "The images in the poster were created based on designs from a paid image professional site using 'camping' as the keyword, and the English phrase was written based on translation results from a portal site."

However, reactions online remain cold. Thousands of comments on the SNS apology include remarks such as "Is this even an apology?" and "I will go to other convenience stores," indicating intentions to boycott. For men in their 20s and 30s angered by misogynistic expressions, the apology's mention of using external company images gives an impression that GS25 is blaming others and seems somewhat unjustified.

The past controversy over GS25's poster, created in collaboration with the Ministry of National Defense, which featured soldiers, mugunghwa (hibiscus), and birds and sparked the 'Gunmusae' (a derogatory term for soldiers) debate, is also resurfacing. It has become difficult to dismiss this as a mere incident. As GS25 explained, external design sources can be used, and it can be seen as an internal staff's deviation. However, there must be an internal filtering system to ultimately screen out expressions or images that could cause social issues. Both individuals and companies can make mistakes, but repeated mistakes are hard to call mere errors.

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