Korean Face Is Featured on McDonald’s Cups

A Korean face is appearing on McDonald’s cups, which are sold over the whole world.

McDonald’s Korea said on April 26, “Kim Si-mahn (24), a senior who is studying Politics, Communication and International Studies at Hannam University, was selected as the winner of the “McDonald’s Global Casting” contest, an event selecting customers as models. He will work as a McDonald’s packaging model for 18 months starting from March 2007.

McDonald’s, which featured global sports stars as packaging models until now, launched a “Global Casting” call to feature consumers as models. Out of 13,000 entries from 100 countries around the world, 24 customers from 15 nations have been selected as winners; among them, Kim is the only Korean.

In the U.S. and Canada, cups and bags featuring Kim’s face have been used since March, and they will be available in Korean McDonald’s restaurants as well as other restaurants around the world starting next month.

The criterion for selecting the winner was one’s “passion toward life.” The firm explained Kim was selected as a model because of his passion for playing the cello.

Kim, who started to learn the cello after joining an orchestra club at college, has been eagerly playing the cello and participating in club activities; he was even selected to be the club’s orchestra master when he was just a junior.

imsoo@donga.com