Hi Seoul!

The newer subway cars in service in the city have video monitors mounted in the cars. These usually play ads and public service announcements. (For example, one urges people not to commit suicide by throwing themselves on the tracks in front of speeding trains, since it would make their wife and kids sad.)

For the past several weeks I've been seeing a long ad for the Hi-Seoul Festival (하이서울 페스티벌) on these video monitors. It is a week-long arts and culture festival whose main purpose is to promote Seoul tourism, held four times a year. The current spring Hi-Seoul Festival took place over this past week, and that's what the ads I was seeing were for.

I was completely taken with this ad. (Or, as we would say in Korean, 이 광고에 반했다.) I couldn't hear the sound, but the images totally captivated me. I'm not sure exactly why, but I think perhaps the ad captured for me the essence of many of the things I love about this city and its residents: the dynamism, the cheerfulness, the pride. On longer subway rides I would see it play every five minutes or so, and every time it came on I would just watch and smile.

So I spent a lot of time on the web trying to track down this video, and I finally have. I present it here for your enjoyment.

It begins with a number of famous celebrities (only one of whom I recognize, pop-culture ignoramus that I am) saying "Hi, Seoul!" and then moves quickly into a montage of different people and groups performing the same dance routine. Two of the groups are young children dancing at one of the main city palaces; one is dancers on stage in traditional Korean hanbok; another has performers dressed as police and other characters on a cartoony stage set. Interspersed with these are scenes of ordinary people and tourists at various locations around the city, as well as of Seoul firefighters and police, who have been coaxed into doing some of the dance moves for the camera.

Enjoy!