Inje County in Gangwon Collaborates with Theborn Korea for Festival
55 Million Won Paid for Two Promotional Videos
County Says "Mentoring Costs Also Included"
It has been revealed that Baek Jongwon, CEO of Theborn Korea, received 550 million won from Inje County, Gangwon Province, as payment for producing a promotional video for a local festival.
According to the Inje County Cultural Foundation on the 27th, Inje County paid 550 million won to TMC Enter, a subsidiary of Theborn Korea, as a promotional fee for the "Camp Lake Festival," a local festival held from June 14 to 23 last year. This amount accounts for 28% of the festival's total budget of 1.95 billion won.
Baek Jongwon, CEO of Theborn Korea, was revealed to have received 550 million won from Inje County, Gangwon Province, as payment for producing a promotional video for a local festival. Baek Jongwon YouTube channel
It has been revealed that Baek Jongwon, CEO of Theborn Korea, received 550 million won from Inje County, Gangwon Province, as payment for producing a promotional video for a local festival.
The 550 million won was paid for Baek Jongwon uploading two promotional videos to his YouTube channel. The videos, titled "We Struggled for Days" and "Attention to Those Tired of Festival Price Gouging," were uploaded on June 9 and July 8 last year, respectively, and are each about 13 minutes long. As of this date, they have recorded approximately 850,000 and 560,000 views, respectively.
The videos show Baek Jongwon applying methods from other local festivals that had previously sparked hygiene controversies, such as cooking with rusty engine oil drums and spraying sauce from pesticide containers, to the Inje County festival. The controversy over cooking with oil drums arose in June 2022, when Baek Jongwon was shown converting an engine oil drum into a barbecue grill on a variety show, with the broadcast revealing the inside of the drum covered in rust. The pesticide container sauce controversy emerged after Baek Jongwon instructed his staff to use a pesticide container to spray sauce at a local festival in Hongseong County, South Chungcheong Province, in 2023, which was later criticized as a violation of food sanitation laws.
As the high production cost became a controversy, Inje County explained, "Baek Jongwon was involved not only in producing the promotional videos but also in various aspects of the festival. The fee also included mentoring costs." In fact, the development of new menus for the festival's food zone and the management of participating food vendors were handled by Theborn Food Service Industry Development Institute, operated by Baek Jongwon. During the festival, about 10 staff members were stationed on-site to guide the food vendors. Regarding the extension of the collaboration, Inje County stated, "We decided not to work together this year," and added, "This is not a response to negative public opinion about Baek Jongwon. From the beginning, the plan was to collaborate only for the first festival."
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