South Korean Plastic Surgery Ad is Cutesy, but Offensive

One of my best friends is currently teaching English and living in South Korea. Along with sincerely interesting cultural differences, she couldn’t help but notice the bombardment of advertisements for plastic surgery all over Soeul.

Curious, I did a little bit of research and found that South Koreans are actually the #1  plastic surgery users in the world! Estimates suggest that one in five South Korean women participate. 

This is one of the ads she saw all over Seoul. 

The emoticons with bigger breasts, skinnier bodies and bigger eyes are at best, terribly offensive to women and they know better than to model themselves after these unattainable standards (really? bigger eyes?). The more likely case is that they are driving low self-esteem, self-objection and a negative body image. Unfortunately, this will simply succeed in putting more money into the pockets of plastic surgery firms. 

Salvador Dali: Creator of Lollipop Logo

The same man who created mind-blowing paintings such as this…

…was also responsible for the Chupa Chups logo, which is ironically viewed and recognized by millions more people as compared to his artwork.

The Muscles of Wall Street

Loved this ad, found on a massive billboard right in the middle of Wall Street.

When a cardholder is happy with the customer service, they spend 8%-10% more on their AMEX.

Research by American Express, on the importance good customer service making good business sense.

These Toe Rings Make You Lose Weight!

There has been all sorts of ridiculous weight-loss schemes, but this is the craziest I’ve ever heard of! 

I recently came across the Slimming Toe Rings by the Canadian company, The Perfect Balance. You’re supposed to wear one on each big toe, and then go on lying on your couch and stuffing your face with junk food. The toe ring contains very heavy magnets and according to their website, these magnets will “increase your metabolism- to help you lose weight without exercising.”

No matter how the nice makers of the Slimming Toe Rings explain this to me on their website, a toe ring that burns your fat for you just refuses to make sense.

Apparently, “the secret lies in the 2 pieces of magnets which can emit 1,100 Gauss’s magnetic force to stimulate the acupuncture points.” As aforementioned, the fancy sounding 1100 Gauss just means heavy magnets. And for those of us that are not into ancient Chinese medicine (like the manufacturers Perfect Balance, for example), this technique is more accurately known as acupressure - not acupuncture (which involves needling).

And while acupressure is effective for pain, the ancient Chinese wisely only used it for pain relief- like a modern day massage- instead of something completely unrelated like weight loss.

Here’s what the toe rings that massage away your obesity look like:

My favourite part of all this was this explanatory sentence: 

“You can reduce weight at the same time, because there are many acupressure points (Tsubo) for slimming in toes Physical exercise and dieting none of these, the secret of its fantastic body shaping capability lies in a circular pottery anode. ” 

If you liked this post, feel free to leave a comment on what you think a circular pottery anode is!