Korea - South: KT&G to Change ''Racist'' Cigarette Packaging

Source from:  Korea Times (kr)  11/01/2013

KT&G, the country's largest tobacco company, will change the package of its ''This Africa'' cigarette, which has been accused of being racist for portraying chimpanzees (previously misidentified as monkeys by media outlets) roasting tobacco leaves. The company will also issue a formal apology next week over the controversy, first reported by The Korea Times on Oct. 22. But it has no plans of changing the name of the product.

"KT&G is in the process of changing the packing and will post an apology on the company's homepage for the design that unintentionally offended some customers," an assistant manager at KT&G's public relations office told The Korea Times.

"We are very sorry for the design, which was supposed to emphasize Africa's traditional way of production. Again, the reactions were totally unexpected … We will ensure that the same problem won't happen again."

The official said the company is "carefully wording" the statement of its apology before posting it early next week.

The decision came after KT&G decided earlier to take down the advertisement for This Africa, which showed chimpanzees roasting tobacco leaves, talking to a microphone and promoting the cigarette in a tuxedo.

The official said that foreign experts were involved in the designing of the package, including graphic artist Papaboule, and designers from Korean fashion magazine Cracker Your Wardrobe.

The images quickly stirred a firestorm abroad after being reported by this newspaper.

The African Tobacco Control Alliance, a Pan-African tobacco control organization, officially demanded KT&G withdraw the brand entirely. It said its members "are deeply offended by KT&G's shameless and insulting use of this mocking imagery."

It remains to be seen whether KT&G's response to the controversial product will calm the anger of many consumers here and abroad.

"Each time we dehumanize others, we dehumanize ourselves," Zambian Mirriam Simasiku, who lives in northern Seoul with her Korean spouse and children, said. "Anybody who is well informed, with honor, dignity and respect for fellow human beings would not allow such a product packaged in the way it is today to be advertised, sold and bought in their market places.

"I refuse to believe and think that a leading company like KT&G with its professional designers and marketing personnel did not know what they were doing and the racial implications of their portrayal of Africa and Africans in their imagery and symbolism."

Another concerned resident of Sudan still finds the name "offensive."

"I feel a perverse relief that it wasn't 'Kenya' or 'Tanzania.' How can a single manufacturer or cigarettes be so thoughtless enough to name its brands after a continent? And to think to name cigarettes after a continent is just bizarre. Would you be pleased to find a cigarette named 'South Korea' or 'Asia?' I doubt it."

Last year, KT&G exported 37.5 million packs of PINE and ESSE cigarettes to countries in Africa. Enditem