Netflix’s hugely popular cooking competition show “Culinary Class Wars” is facing criticism for the hiring “bad marketing” – highlight the negative aspects of the competitors to attract the viewer’s attention. As contestants singled out for inappropriate behavior during the competition face personal attacks, concerns are mounting “bad marketing”a chronic feature of Korean variety shows, is replicated in global OTT entertainment programs.
In particular, chef Kwon Sung-jun, known as “Naples Matfia”who won “Culinary Class Wars” and claimed the 300 million won prize (approximately $220,000 USD), he recently posted an apology on his social media account, saying: “Even though I was no longer young, I acted and thought immaturely.”
Mentioning fellow contestants Edward Lee, Triple Star and Cooking Maniac, he confessed: “When these three remained at the end, I thought they were all difficult opponents to beat, and I showed more to avoid feeling intimidated.”
Kwon Sung-jun stirred controversy in the final competition, which was released on Netflix on the 8th, by displaying disrespectful behavior, such as telling his opponent Edward Lee, “I will crush you slowly.”
These “villain market” tactics have brought a lot of attention to the show, but at the same time have also led to contestants suffering from a stream of malicious comments.
Regarding the topic of “marketing the bad guys,” cultural critic Jeong Deok-hyeon said: “It is true that some entertainment programs are causing harm to the cast through evil editing,’” adding: “However, in the case of ‘Culinary Class Wars,’ it’s not that there has been malicious editing, but rather that audiences are reacting quite sensitively because the program has become such a hot topic.”
Meanwhile, PD Kim Eun-ji, who produced “Culinary Class Wars,” explained the “villain marketing” controversy by saying“It’s something that happened when contestants with unique personalities immersed themselves in the competition, and we didn’t intend to portray a specific contestant in a bad light.”
He continued, “In fact, it’s no exaggeration to say that there are no villains compared to other survival shows, but I think people with unique characters ended up getting more attention.”
Source: Daum
