Whitening Sauce

For ten months in Colombia, I didn’t have a television and now that I am here in Korea, my only entertainment is the tube. I am impressed with the variety of English programming, but it is the commercials that intrigue me.

The music choice is fantastic. I am not sure what the North American restrictions are on using songs or getting the copyright, but it seems that Koreans are free to use whatever music they want—hip hop, Moby, Frank Sinatra, classical to classic jazz.

So there I was when a 15-second ad came on for some unknown product. It wasn’t the music that caught my attention because this ad was silent; unusually silent. The shot opens with two middle-age women on a train. The décor was completely white along with their wardrobes. The only colour was the scene going by on the train and it was so muted that it could have been shot through white gauze. The women begin conversing, with the camera panning to the lady on the left. She lifts her hands to her face, smiles at the camera then says something directly to the viewer. A voiceover says in perfect English, “Whitening Sauce,” followed by more Korean.

It cracked me up. I know about the skin bleaches, and yes there is irony in that, but just the fact the product is called a “sauce” caused giggles loud enough that my neighbours were sure to question what I found so funny.