Seoul Dairy cowed by internet mob as they froth about video

Scenes of the video advertisement uploaded by Seoul Dairy Cooperative on its YouTube channel on Nov. 29. [SCREEN CAPTURES]

Seoul Dairy Cooperative apologized Wednesday over a recent video that an internet mob determined was insulting to women.

Seoul Dairy Cooperative is the largest milk producer in Korea. It sells Seoul Milk.

The 52-second video on the company's YouTube channel from late November starts with an explorer wandering in the mountains. He finds eight people, two women and six men, dressed in white.

The advertisement for organic milk features scenes of a woman drinking water from a leaf and the eight people relaxing in a field.

When the explorer secretly tries to take a photo of them, he creates a noise by accidentally stepping on a branch. Startled, the eight people suddenly turn into cows.

Though both women and men turn into cows, some viewers opined on social media that the video compared women to cows by displaying only women in close-up shots and showing the faces of the women but not the men. Critics also said that the explorer's attempt to secretly take a photo of the people on the grass was a reminder of molka surreptitious filming.

"We are deeply sorry to those who felt uncomfortable by the milk advertisement uploaded on our official YouTube channel on Nov. 29," Seoul Dairy Cooperative said in a statement. "We are internally taking this issue seriously, and we will more thoroughly review and pay more attention so as to make sure the incident is not repeated."

The company said that its intention was to highlight nature and that its product is environmentally friendly.

Seoul Dairy Cooperative was criticized in 2003 when it hired three female nude models to promote its new product at a gallery. The nude models threw yogurt at each other at the event.

People responsible for the marketing of the event and the models were fined for obscenity.

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]