Gov’t Stops Internet Ads Raising U.S. Beef Safety

The government has suspended publicity advertisement on U.S. beef safety through major Internet portal sites. Government agencies, including the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and Internet-related businesses yesterday severed public relations advertising on food safety regarding U.S. beef via major Internet portal sites.

Beginning May 6, the administration ran banner advertising on the major Internet portals including Naver, Daum, and Yahoo! Korea, placing an ad containing information that the U.S. beef is free from the risk of mad cow disease. In the face of mounting public criticism in recent days, however, the administration failed to make contracts to extend the advertisement after the ad was expired.

The government is also said to have contracted with online advertising firm Overture Korea, which has worked with Naver, Yahoo! Korea and Empas, to link Web pages related to the government’s agricultural policies when a search word “mad cow disease” is entered. But this advertisement has also been suspended.

The ministry said, “We had intended to run the advertisement only during the contracted time period. We suspended the ad due to insufficient budgets and other reasons.”

However, some in the Internet-related businesses say that the government abruptly discontinued the ad given the unfounded rumors that U.S. beef prone to mad cow disease had subsided and supplementary measures for additional negotiations with the United States were also established.

imsun@donga.com swon@donga.com