Renault Korea apologizes for 'hateful' hand gesture in YouTube video

This screenshot captured from Renault Korea's YouTube channel on July 1, 2024, shows an apology statement over purportedly misandristic imagery contained in the company's YouTube videos.[YONHAP]

Renault Korea Motors, the Korean unit of French auto group Renault S.A., has apologized following online backlash over purported “misandrist” imagery in its YouTube videos.

On Saturday, Renault Korea blocked public access to videos that had been available on Renault Inside, one of its corporate YouTube channels after critics claimed that they showed a female employee doing a finger-pinching hand gesture widely seen as a dog whistle for prejudice against men in Korea.

“We sincerely apologize, once again, to everyone who felt discomfort due to our recent internal promotional content,” Renault Korea wrote on the YouTube channel's community bulletin board.

The company said it has launched an internal investigative committee and is also preparing measures to improve the content production and review process to prevent similar incidents from recurring.

“Based on the findings of the investigation, we will take appropriate follow-up actions. Until the committee reaches its conclusion, the individual in question has been suspended from her duties,” Renault Korea added.

The employee in question posted a personal statement on the YouTube channel's community bulletin board over the weekend, saying that she “was aware that a certain hand gesture was considered problematic and seen as a hateful move,” adding that she had not been aware of the gesture's implications. The worker's statement was later removed.

Renault Korea is not the first company in South Korea to become mired in a controversy over such imagery.

Convenience store franchise GS25 came under public scrutiny for using the finger-pinching image in a promotional poster in 2021. Last year, large game companies, including Nexon and Kakao Games, also faced backlash for using similar imagery in promotional material.

The public relations debacle could not have come at a more inconvenient time for Renault Korea.

The company just last week unveiled the Grand Koleos, an ambitious new hybrid SUV and the company's first new model in four years while aiming to overcome a prolonged sales slump in Korea.

The company has remained in fifth, and last, place in terms of market share among automakers with domestic manufacturing bases since April 2022. Between January and May of this year, its market share stood at 1.8 percent.

Despite Renault Korea's apology, Korean netizens have expressed frustration over the controversy, with some even calling for a boycott of the company's products.

“The hand gesture made by the person presumed to be an internal employee was enough to provoke a significant amount of anger from many people,” one person wrote on the social media platform X. “Strong action from Renault Korea is necessary.”

Yonhap