A Review of Olga Fedorenko, Flower of Capitalism: South Korean Advertising at a Crossroads. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2022, 298 pp.

Abstract

The monograph under review is devoted to South Korean advertising in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Drawing on multi-sited ethnography, the author examines how South Korean advertising has been situationally constructed at the intersection of the interests of different actors. The question of the interaction between cultural logic, which determines the embodiment and understanding of advertising in specific cultural contexts, and commercial logic is central to the research. The author draws attention to the effects that arise within the interplay between these logics that lead to the emergence of specific South Korean forms of advertising practices and texts. The review notes that this monograph can be seen as part of the current debate on the de-Westernisation of media and mass communication studies. At the same time, it points out that the separation of the commercial and cultural logics of advertising allows for more nuanced research, but might lead to the construction and reproduction of such a dichotomy.