Health ministry launches anti-drinking ads ahead of year-end season

The health ministry on Friday unveiled two public service advertisements urging South Koreans to cut back or stop drinking over the year-end season, built around the message that alcohol has nothing to do with relationships.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Health Promotion Institute released the films to mark November as a month for preventing alcohol-related harm, with the slogan "Alcohol has nothing to do with relationships." The campaign targets a drinking culture in which refusing a drink at a gathering is treated as a slight.

One film, "The Last Black Knight," imagines a future in which the "black knight" — a Korean term for the person at a drinking table who drains another's glass for them — has retired, because "you don't have to drink" has become an ordinary courtesy. It was produced in 30-second, 15-second and extended cuts. A second film, "Frequency, not proof," makes the point that good relationships are built by the number of times people meet, not by the strength of the drinks they share.

The ads were made using generative artificial intelligence. They will run mainly on digital media from late October and were posted on the institute's alcohol information website on Oct. 29.

The ministry and the institute are also working with online creators to spread the slogan, and an online tool will let people convert the amount they drink into the alternative things that money could have bought.

"This year's campaign for the month of preventing alcohol-related harm focused on changing the existing perception that alcohol is an essential element of personal relationships," said Kim Han-sook, director general of the ministry's health policy bureau. "We will continue policy efforts to create a social atmosphere in which the choice not to drink is respected and to improve the environment that encourages drinking, so that alcohol-related harm is reduced."

Kim Heon-joo, head of the Korea Health Promotion Institute, said the ads and the online and offline campaigns were meant to convey that the essence of a good relationship is sincere communication, not alcohol, and that the institute hopes many people will join the campaign during the month.