Car-lacking boyfriend on a hot day

A food company has been blasted by male Internet users after placing an ad for its barley tea product, saying, “The weather is sweltering hot, but my BF (boyfriend) has no car.” The ad is placed at bus stops and contains a picture of high-heeled women`s shoes. The ad agency probably considered that the word “car” has the same pronunciation as that of “tea” in Korean, expecting the ad to appeal to young women waiting for a bus in summer. Perhaps young men who lack cars to give their girlfriends rides were angered by the ad.

In most Korean TV dramas, the male protagonist is depicted as a son or grandson of a conglomerate owner who has a luxurious foreign car. People can easily see handsome men in their 30s or 40s (with expensive cars) fall in love with young women in melodramas, but few dramas have a 20-something man without a car as the main character. If a poor 20-something man appears in a melodrama, he is most likely to fall in love with an older woman or be treated as a pet. In other words, he is described as the fantasy of 30-something working women. At any rate, no Korean TV drama features a love story involving a young man without a car.

According to police, the percentage of those aged between 18 and 25 with a driver’s license fell from 10.7 percent in 2007 to 8.9 percent in 2010. Some say this is because young people have gotten more attracted to smartphones and game devices than cars. But the hypothesis that “cars are too expensive and those in their 20s have no money” is more convincing. Young men cannot afford cars and cannot go on dates with women their age without cars, according to the ad.

Most young men desire to date women. If this desire is blocked, they will grow deeply frustrated and this could turn into hatred for women. The term “doenjangnyeo,” referring to young women who blindly pursue brand-name goods and a luxurious lifestyle but whose real lives are far from posh, apparently reflect the frustrations and sense of inferiority of such poor young men. They call the women whom they cannot approach “doenjangnyeo” and give up on them bitterly. Many are afraid that poor men will grow resentful that they cannot have a romantic relationship due to lack of money. “No decent woman is attracted to a luxurious car.” Regrettably, these are the only immediate words of comfort for such young males.

Industrial News Reporter Jang Kang-myeong (tesomiom@donga.com)