Seoul's new slogan

[tredecimo.livejournal.com]

'I.Seoul.You' is new slogan for Seoul

"I.Seoul.You" has been selected as the capital city's new slogan.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Wednesday that "I.Seoul.You" beat the two other candidates ― "Seoulmate" and "SEOULing" ― to replace its current slogan "Hi Seoul".

"Seoulmate" won slightly more votes than "I.Seoul.You" in an online poll. However, in an on-the-spot poll held in the evening at Seoul Plaza, all nine experts and 682 out of a total 1,140 citizens voted for "I.Seoul.You", which beat "Seoulmate" with only 232 votes.

Lee Ha-rin, a Korean student who studies philosophy in college, is the winner of the slogan contest, in which more than 16,000 people participated.

Prof. Kim Yoo-kyung of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, marketing company Playground CEO Kim Hong-tak and Prof. Seo Kyung-duk of Sungshin Women's University were among the experts.

"It was very meaningful that Seoul citizens participated in the whole process from making to selecting the new slogan," Seo said.

Kim Min-ki, who was in charge of the project, said that the new slogan will be used to rebrand the city globally.

Yet, many PR experts and expats expressed concern that the new slogan will likely attract international ridicule, saying that "I.Seoul.You" is not just uninspiring but also makes little sense in English.

They criticized the other two finalists as well, saying that the municipality overemphasized the domestic aspect in selecting the English slogan with a panel of experts that had only one native English speaker on it.





Seoul settles on 'I Seoul U' as its city slogan

Note the 'O' in the logo uses the Korean character 'ㅇ'.


1. [+4,272, -309] I actually liked Hi Seoul though

2. [+4,247, -676] I. Seoul. You. It doesn't even make sense grammatically, what is this... Hi Seoul made way more sense.

3. [+3,208, -184] Doesn't really hit home for me

4. [+2,832, -284] Seoul is just Seoul, why do we have to add so much to it --; Just keep it simple. Korea! Seoul!

5. [+2,568, -175] IU's Seoul? Is this a joke?

6. [+806, -22] I Seoul U... what does that even mean? The grammar's all wrong too

7. [+794, -19] Who would actually think "your and my Seoul" when they first see that logo ㅋㅋㅋ Don't know why people didn't like Hi Seoul so much...

8. [+759, -46] What a waste of money to just copy I♥NY

9. [+728, -20] Grammar's wrong, the logo doesn't really resonate anything

10. [+602, -23] Try wearing a shirt that says this overseas and foreigners will think you're an idiot, how embarrassing

11. [+586, -13] Hi Seoul's way better, not sure what this one's trying to convey

12. [+502, -12] Why not just keep it Korean.. why use English?

13. [+312, -8] My husband's Canadian and he loves Korea but he doesn't like this slogan at all. I'm sure people could've come up with better ideas, how embarrassing!

14. [+275, -4] Should've just kept pushing Hi Seoul instead of wasting tax money

15. [+253, -3] Change it back to Hi~Seoul! How friendly does that sound? And so endearing too. Now the city has to waste even more tax money to print out copies of the new logo to promote the city and throw out all the old logos... waste of money.

16. [+242, -7] Seoul was chosen as one of the best design cities in the world and this is all we could come up with? Imagine seeing this slogan next to posters of New York and Amsterdam, it'll pale in comparison. How embarrassing.

17. [+236, -3] Hi Seoul is bright and welcoming, not sure why we had to change it.

18. [+197, -3] I doubt foreigners will understand what this means at all




Source | Jung Min-ho for The Korea Times, Asia Economy via Naver via NetizenBuzz

Comments

[sonicphotonic.livejournal.com]

all 3 finalists were crappy. IDK why they changed it from Hi Seoul tbh

[honeebs.livejournal.com]

seoulmate was better
Too bad many don't like it or these few

[miyozari.livejournal.com]

They should've kept the old slogan. The bad grammar just makes me cringe.

[annayism.livejournal.com]

hi seoul is still the best. so cheerful and fun

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

Congrats Seoul for becoming a new human trafficking capital as people are gonna miss hear that slogan as "I sold you"! Anyhow all the finalists sucked. They should have gone with something like "Find your Seoul" instead.

[seulgibear.livejournal.com]

lmaooo!! find your seoul sounds really good actually! they could play up all the different sides of the city

[episkia.livejournal.com]

dude that's so great plz i want that

[dorawa.livejournal.com]

Seriously that's a really good one tbh since Seoul has so many different parts to it

[bananaclaw.livejournal.com]

Hahaha I actually had that thought when I was trying to make sense of I Seoul You. That and a weird way of trying to say "I saw you".

[tree-star123.livejournal.com]

lol find your seoul is great. was also thinking seoully yours or my seoul lol. seoulmate is cute.

[welljustguess.livejournal.com]

oh yesss

[woohyun.livejournal.com]

I wanted Seoulmate!

this one is yucky lol

[kwikimart.livejournal.com]

This is very, very embarrassing
I mean, this would be funny if it was some group but like...this is a city. They didn't think to at least check the grammar? Mess

[awsteven.livejournal.com]

smh why would they trust a philosophy student to rebrand a city??

[atopworld.livejournal.com]

Yeah....no.

[episkia.livejournal.com]

this is so embarrassing. i can't believe this is what they came up with from a nation wide contest.

[cherrypop.livejournal.com]

Hi Seoul was fine! This is just crap. And the fact that they had to hold a contest for the slogan? It's like saying "Our tourism department is REALLY really untalented. Can you do our work for us?"

[baeby-bloo-skys.livejournal.com]

i really liked "infinitely yours, seoul" from wayyy back

[angela-derp-otp.livejournal.com]

This is one of my faves too.

[jasmineakaiumi.livejournal.com]

embarrassing to say the least. i preferred Seoulmate...
i look at that logo and have no idea what its trying to convey lmao if i didn't read the Korean underneath i'd NEVER know they were trying to say "My and your Seoul"

[angela-derp-otp.livejournal.com]

Why change something that isn't broken and replace it with this awful grammatical mess?


The three finalists were really poor choices too, Seouling is confusing and Seoulmate is really corny and sounds pretty amateur. All three are really uninspired, why not hire a group of specialists?

They should have revamped the concept of Hi Seoul. Hi Seoul has so much potential and it can evolve and chance so easily.

City branding is such an important thing, especially for big capitals like Seoul, the main problem I see with Seoul is that they change their slogan too often, instead of sticking to a really good one that can be a brand on its own.

[dreamer-easy.livejournal.com]

lololol Well, don't! lololol

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

seoulmate was cute

[welljustguess.livejournal.com]

sorry but looool too cheesy for me
btw this remind me of "i lava you" song

[dreamer-easy.livejournal.com]

The Korean says "My and Your Seoul". My and your, I and U - geddit? :)