Visualization of technological utopianism by corporate advertising campaigns in the 1980s: South Korea LG’s ‘technopia’ and Samsung’s ‘humantech’

Visualization of technological utopianism by corporate advertising campaigns in the 1980s: South Korea LG’s ‘technopia’ and Samsung’s ‘humantech’

LEE, Su-Ji

Article:

This study focuses on technological utopianism which was created by major corporations through their advertisement campaign designs in mid to late 1980s in South Korea. In this study, we analyse the contents in printed advertisements and TV commercials of LG’s ‘Technopia’ in 1985 and Samsung’s ‘Humantech’ in 1986. In the mid to late 1980s, South Korea was full of hope because the domestic economy improved rapidly, and the social environment was filled with expectations of globalization. LG and Samsung both focused on development of technology and wanted to visualize some kind of ‘utopia’, which was created by them through their ads. As the two rival companies had similar campaign purposes, the designs of their campaigns looked very much alike. The campaigns emphasized a meeting between technology and humans, wanted to be a hero who helps weaker and smaller humans, and expressed unrealistic depiction with computer graphics.

This study focuses on technological utopianism which was created by major corporations through their advertisement campaign designs in mid to late 1980s in South Korea. In this study, we analyse the contents in printed advertisements and TV commercials of LG’s ‘Technopia’ in 1985 and Samsung’s ‘Humantech’ in 1986. In the mid to late 1980s, South Korea was full of hope because the domestic economy improved rapidly, and the social environment was filled with expectations of globalization. LG and Samsung both focused on development of technology and wanted to visualize some kind of ‘utopia’, which was created by them through their ads. As the two rival companies had similar campaign purposes, the designs of their campaigns looked very much alike. The campaigns emphasized a meeting between technology and humans, wanted to be a hero who helps weaker and smaller humans, and expressed unrealistic depiction with computer graphics.

Palavras-chave:

DOI: 10.5151/despro-icdhs2016-01_009

Referências bibliográficas

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• [5] Naver News Library. http://newslibrary.naver.com
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• [8] Yong Woo, Kim. and Bum Gyu, Lee. (2005) Advertising design, Seoul: Goryeomdeicine.

Como citar:

LEE, Su-Ji; "Visualization of technological utopianism by corporate advertising campaigns in the 1980s: South Korea LG’s ‘technopia’ and Samsung’s ‘humantech’", p-45-49. In: Wong, Wendy Siuyi; Kikuchi, Yuko & Lin, Tingyi (Eds.). <strong>Making Trans/National Contemporary Design History [=ICDHS 2016 – 10th Conference of the International Committee for Design History & Design Studies]</strong>. São Paulo: Blucher, 2016.
ISSN 23186968, DOI 10.5151/despro-icdhs2016-01_009