It’s time for another round of “Market Trends,” bringing you weekly updates on the North Korean economy. Fall has arrived and is bringing in some welcome cool air. In South Korea, we see a lot of advertisements enticing customers with new products in the fall, and one has to wonder, does this kind of activity exist in the North as well? Reporter Seol Song Ah is here to tell us more. Do North Koreans have a modern understanding of advertising?
When it comes to advertising, what’s important is sharing information with others. I don’t actually think this is something North Koreans have necessarily become accustomed to. Instead of advertisements, they’re more commonly referred to as signboards. In a socialist economy, people are supposed to receive rations and goods from state-run stores, so there is no need to actually acknowledge a product for advertisement. Shortly after the jangmadang (markets, official or otherwise) came into existence, there wasn’t a real need for advertising because customers would usually come and inspect the goods in person.
But from the late 1990s, things began to change. There was suddenly a surge in the number of goods sold at the jangmadang, and vendors began competing to attract people and sell their products. They started to write information on paper signs and place them in front of their goods. Taking cigarettes as an example, there would be the so-called ‘stiff cigarettes,’ the ‘Ryanggang cigarettes,’ and the ‘bitter cigarettes [made from dry acerbic herbs].’ But the writing would eventually fade in the sun, so some people started cutting out cardboard boxes, attaching a piece of paper, and writing with red or blue paint: “One puff will hit you hard!” Although they were the same cigarettes, they began to sell a lot better with the new signs up.
So it would be written in red or blue to get people’s attention. There was a time when the North Korean government also created advertisements, right?
At some point the North received attention worldwide for its ‘Hwiparam’ (whistle) car commercials on television and on large street display screens. It also had ads for chilled Taedonggang beer, and although some people may wonder whether this was a step towards open commercialization, it wasn’t truly an advertisement for the market. It would be more accurate to think of it as an amalgamation of its foreign currency earning operations and propaganda for the leadership, rather than directed at the jangmadang to increase sales. Today I’d like to talk a little more about the advertisements specifically used within the markets and how they’re posted.
Ads within the jangmadang can be seen within the context of economic survival in the midst of competition. Could you tell us about some of the examples that you encountered back in the North?
After the mass famine in the 1990s people began pouring into the jangmadang. I remember the alleys being chaotic with people crowded around food stalls like ants. But even for those selling the same rice cakes, stalls that had signs up saying “Chewy rice cakes made with freshly harvested rice,” attracted many more people. So you could see the effects of this advertising. What’s also interesting is that it’s not just signs and letters that people use.
Attractive young female vendors were much more effective than a few words on paper. I also felt that stalls staffed by young women selling food would taste a lot better. This is probably why middle-aged women put more effort into their makeup and appearance. The quality of the product being sold is of course important, but because everyone knows the benefits of appearance, they scrupulously put effort into their own clothing and makeup.
It seems this comes from the similar emerging trend of hiring young unmarried women at car washes. Since we’re on the topic of clothes, how do vendors advertise fashion products?
Leading up to the 1990s, North Korean fashion was mostly centered on mainstream attire, but this has changed dramatically with the introduction of the South Korean cultural wave known as Hallyu. TV dramas from the South have promoted fashion trends in the North. Vendors specializing in clothes watch these dramas and design their products based on what women in their 20s will seek. They produce the clothing and then sell the completed goods at their stalls.
Mannequins at the stalls help advertise the products. In the North, we call them ‘suji (synthetic resin) models’ because they consist of plastic shaped like a person. Unlike in the South, it’s rare to see vendors with full-body mannequins. It’s even rare for city vendors to just have upper body mannequins. The lucky ones who do, dress them up and put them on display at their stall. This attracts people almost immediately, as it highlights the way the clothes appear when worn.
It’s interesting to know there are mannequins in the North as well. You just mentioned that not all vendors have them, so how do those without mannequins put their products on display?
It gets pretty interesting for vendors without mannequins. Even after going over the product in great detail, the customer doesn’t usually purchase immediately. People will buy simple handmade clothing or undergarments as long as the size is right, but factory-produced apparel is expensive, so they ask the vendors to try the clothes on themselves. If the vendor is overweight or not the best fit, the clothes won’t look nice, so they bring in young attractive women as their models. So these are in essence North Korean fashion models.
So you have fashion models at the jangmadang. That would be an interesting sight. Can you tell us more about that?
I think it’s great that people in the North have naturally come to understand the importance of advertising and its different forms within the market. The models put on clothes at the store and pose for the customers, twirling and moving their arms around until the potential buyer is hopefully persuaded.
If the customer likes what they see, they buy the outfit, and the owner in turn gives the model about a kilogram of rice for payment. By modeling for a few minutes, these models can make as much money as a vendor would selling beancurd all day. Until the 1990s, you could see people doing this as a favor for friends, but these days it’s the norm to split profits in the marketplace even between parents and children.
I thought there would only be propaganda in North Korea, so it’s surprising to know there are all of these different forms of advertising in the marketplace. This shows there’s a lot of potential, right?
That’s right. There are examples of donjuLiterally "masters of money," donju refers to people who hav... More (newly affluent middle class citizens) hiring professionals to advertise their shops. This is for cases when they use their homes as stores to sell goods like refrigerators and televisions. They may live close to the market or their place might be hidden in an alley out of sight from the public. So they hire one or two people to hold up signs all day at the market entrance advertising the location where fridges and televisions can be bought.
So in a way they’re advertising the products, and when people approach them about the goods, they lead them to where the home/store is located. Once the customers arrive, they’re usually impressed by the array of Chinese products for sale. Day hires in these situations get paid not by the day, but by how many customers they bring to the shop. I’ve heard these promotion assistants can make a decent amount of money on a daily basis.
It seems vendors that live near the market wouldn’t need to hire these assistants. Is that the case?
That’s correct. DonjuLiterally "masters of money," donju refers to people who hav... More who live right near the markets generally don’t need to hire assistants. Instead they can just hang a sign with the names of the products on their front door or place it on their roof. People on their way to the market can see the signs and come to buy the goods available. Whether it’s in the North or South, I think the practicality and creativity behind these advertising methods is similar.
Don’t you have law enforcement restricting advertising around residential areas? One could be worried that it may be thought of as an inappropriate capitalist trend.
That North Korea would see advertising as something that challenges the socialist system is obviously something to worry about. But even cadres in law enforcement don’t make much of product signs hanging on front doors. They seem to look at it more as communication between a seller and a buyer as opposed to it being related to the philosophy of capitalism. During mobilization periods for farm work, the state tends to block activities at the general markets, but people who depend on the markets can’t give up their livelihoods for the sake of farm work.
Again, this is when you can see advertisements play a more prominent role. Everybody will sell their goods at their own house during these periods and put up signs for shoes, cigarettes, rice, and manufactured goods, etc. on the front gates or walls around their homes. It may look like graffiti at first glance, but people have become accustomed to it, probably making it one of the earliest forms of advertising in the North. Law enforcement officers during mobilization will crack down on people selling goods on the street, but won’t take action against people putting up signs on their doors.
And when it comes to controlled goods, the form of advertising becomes even more direct. Because vendors can’t openly place these materials out in stalls, more discreet methods have become popular. For goods like batteries, copper, scrap metal, and other metals, you’ll generally see people write the merchandise on a piece of paper and try to bring in customers from the roadside or near the market place.
