"I Don't Know Politics, I Just Want to Live Well"... Controversy Over New Democratic Party Banner Targeting MZ Generation

Democratic Party Draft Released... "Tailored to the Tastes of the 2030 Generation"
Youth Party Member: "Youth Disparagement... What on Earth Are They Thinking?"

The Democratic Party of Korea has unveiled a newly redesigned banner ahead of next year’s general election. The party explained that the design breaks away from traditional political banner styles and takes into account the preferences of the 2030 generation. However, this has sparked a flood of criticism both inside and outside the party, with accusations of ‘youth disparagement.’

The Democratic Party’s election planning team sent an official letter on the 17th to each provincial party office, introducing four new banner design drafts.

The new banner designs feature geometric patterns along with phrases such as “Reasonable for me,” “I don’t know politics, but I want to live well,” “I don’t know the economy, but I want to have a lot of money,” and “You said you want to live alone, but did you mean you want to be alone?” Notably, the use of the party’s symbolic blue color has been minimized.

The Democratic Party described the project as “a campaign where the Democratic Party enters the lives of each citizen to transform into a ‘Democratic Party useful to me,’” and said it “mainly targets the 2030 generation, which values individuality and diversity.”

They added, “Changing the banners is also part of this project, and after posting the drafts from the 17th to the 23rd, the new banner design to be officially used will be unveiled at a central party event on the 23rd.”

Banner design released by the Democratic Party of Korea [Image source=Provided by the Democratic Party of Korea]

However, once these banner phrases were made public, requests for reconsideration poured in through the party’s public relations office group chat, where party officials and aides gathered. The concern is that the wording portrays young people as a selfish group, which could be interpreted as ‘youth disparagement’ or ‘youth hatred.’

The Democratic Party’s youth member opinion group, “Padong,” issued an urgent statement that day, calling the messages “the worst and most low-quality among recent Democratic Party messages.” They strongly criticized, “What on earth does the Democratic Party think of the youth generation? Are they an ‘unthinking’ generation for whom money is everything, and a ‘stupid’ generation that doesn’t understand politics? What is the Democratic Party thinking, interpreting the youth’s suffering as ‘I don’t know the economy, but I want to have a lot of money’?”

They continued, “The youth generation is angry at the incompetence and irresponsibility of our politics. The patience of Democratic Party youth members is reaching its limit,” demanding an apology from the Democratic Party’s election planning team and a complete personnel overhaul for failing to respect the youth generation.

Independent lawmaker Kim Nam-guk, who left the Democratic Party, also expressed his opinion on his social network service (SNS), saying, “I cannot intuitively understand what the Democratic Party is trying to say,” and “Although they emphasized individuality and diversity tailored to the 2030 generation, I do not sympathize at all with the message of this banner draft.”

Kim pointed out, “Also, when you think about what image of the Democratic Party people will associate with after reading the banner message, it doesn’t seem very positive.”