"Lady" for Female Staff, Profanity After Rejection... Controversy Over Jeju Youth Center Promotional Video

Controversy Over Parody Video of "The Lady at the Tobacco Shop"

Center Apologizes for "Failing to Consider Discomfort" and Deletes Video

Jeju Youth Center, a youth support platform in Jeju, posted a promotional video containing gender-discriminatory language and scenes reminiscent of profanity, but after controversy arose, the center apologized and deleted the video.

Self-produced promotional video posted by Jeju Youth Center. It has been deleted. Screenshot from X.

On March 23, a promotional video titled "2026 Youth Club Member Recruitment" was uploaded to the official social media accounts of Jeju Youth Center.

The video was produced as a parody of the popular song "The Lady at the Tobacco Shop." It featured a female staff member and included lyrics such as "At Jeju Youth Center, the lady is beautiful," and "All the youth of Jeju sneak peeks, but the lady is aloof."

In particular, the controversy intensified when, in the middle of the video, a scene was shown in which a man is rejected by a woman and then appears to mouth profanities.

After the video was released, criticism was raised over its gender discrimination and its inappropriateness as a public institution's promotional material. Online commenters reacted by saying, "Is it appropriate to refer to men as 'youth' but call women 'lady'?", "It's shocking to include a scene reminiscent of profanity just because someone was rejected," and "It's hard to believe this is content produced in 2026; it feels outdated."

Some users even posted that they had filed complaints with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea.

As the controversy grew, Jeju Youth Center deleted the video and posted an apology.

The center stated, "We planned the promotional video with the theme of interpersonal relationships, parodying the well-known song 'The Lady at the Tobacco Shop.' While we tried to preserve the expressions of the original song, we failed to fully consider that this could cause discomfort," the statement read.

"We apologize for causing discomfort with expressions reminiscent of profanity in the video," it continued. "We will conduct more thorough reviews and exercise greater caution in the future to prevent similar issues from arising."

However, even after the apology, criticism continued online. Some users commented, "It's shocking that no one recognized the problem before the video was posted," and "They should clearly acknowledge the gender-discriminatory expressions and show a willingness to improve."

Meanwhile, Jeju Youth Center is a youth support platform established and operated under the Jeju Youth Basic Ordinance. It is managed by Jeju Economic Promotion Agency, a Jeju provincial institution. The center carries out a variety of youth policy activities, including support for youth projects and community activities, employment support, and the operation of Jeju Youth School and youth teaching internships.

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