CU·First Union to Find Missing Children Using Album Jackets

Project Participating Singer Features Long-Term Missing Children Search Campaign Poster on Album Jacket
First Artist Mnet High School Rapper Contestant Bang Jaemin
Includes Long-Term Missing Children Poster in New Song 'NAVY'
CU Finds Over 90 Children in 3 Years Through 'I CU' Campaign

Rapper Bang Jae-min is participating as the first ambassador in the long-term missing children search project "I Will Be a Good Friend" at the CU BGF Headquarters Store in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Kim] BGF Retail announced on the 11th that it will jointly carry out the 'Be your Good Friend' project with First Union starting this month.

Since 2018, BGF Retail has been running a long-term missing children search project in collaboration with the Child Rights Protection Agency, broadcasting missing children-related content on payment terminals (POS) and kiosks at over 15,000 CU stores nationwide.

The 'Be your Good Friend' project was planned when BGF Retail, seeking ways to raise public awareness about long-term missing children, connected with First Union, which has shown consistent interest in missing children. First Union is a newly established entertainment group that manages everything from developing new artists to production, producing, and marketing.

The new album by the artist participating in this project will carry the joint album title 'Find Missing Children,' and the long-term missing children posters produced by BGF Retail will be featured on the album jacket. Since the album jacket is exposed to the public every time the song is streamed on online music platforms, it is expected to have a significant effect in spreading information about long-term missing children.

The first artist to participate in this project is rapper Bang Jaemin (a.mond), known from the Mnet survival program High School Rapper. Bang Jaemin captured and posted the play screen of the project’s song 'NAVY' on his personal SNS, explaining the meaning of the project and personally writing, "I would appreciate it if you could take a closer look at the image on the album cover."

'NAVY' was released on domestic music sites on the 4th and simultaneously made available on music sites in 50 countries including the United States, Japan, and Canada under the album title 'Find Missing Children Part.1.' On the day of release, the song was streamed about 10,000 times on a single music site, and the album jacket exposure is estimated to be around 100,000 times. It also entered the Melon music chart within a week of release.

Since 2018, BGF Retail has signed a business agreement with the Child Rights Protection Agency and has been steadily conducting various activities using CU infrastructure to help the prompt return of long-term missing children, including ▲running missing and abduction prevention campaigns ▲creating safety murals on school routes ▲broadcasting long-term missing children search content on payment terminals and kiosks. Together with the National Police Agency, BGF Retail established the missing prevention reporting system 'iCU,' which safely protects lost children (including those with intellectual disabilities and dementia) and hands them over to the police or family. Over the past three years, this system has safely returned about 90 children to their families.

In particular, last October, a long-term missing child who had been missing for 20 years was dramatically reunited with their family as an adult through CU. Since last year, the 'iCU' system has added a child abuse reporting function that allows store employees to report suspected child abuse situations more quickly to the police via POS.

Jungkwon Park, Head of Communications at BGF Retail, said, "We thank First Union and the artists who willingly became good friends for missing children," adding, "BGF Retail is waiting for artists who will join the 'Be your Good Friend' project to help return children to the warmth of their families."