GS Caltex Bags Advertising Award with Emotional Ad

GS Caltex took home two awards at this year’s New York Festivals Advertising Awards with its new ad that addresses the issue of abuse that call Korean center workers frequently face.

It was a great night on May 17 for GS Caltex, as the South Korean energy company bagged a silver medal and a bronze medal in the fields representing public interest and products and services, at New York Festivals Advertising, one of the three most prestigious advertising awards in the world alongside the Clio Awards and Cannes Lions.

The theme of the award-winning ad is sympathy. In the ad, family members of call center workers record a voice memo, which is replayed instead of a ringtone while customers wait to be connected.  The message says the person customers will speak to is someone’s mother, daughter and wife.

The moving ad has been watched over 1.3 million times across social media, garnering praise. The voice recordings have since been adopted by multiple companies including Lotte Department Store and LG Uplus, for their call center workers.

The touching social marketing campaign comes as an increasing number of call center workers in South Korea face verbal abuse from customers.

Data from recruiting websites Job Korea and Albamon last year revealed over 8 in 10 customer service workers have experienced verbal abuse from customers, ranging from talking down and interrupting to swearing, with 74 percent having done nothing in response.

Against this backdrop, a number of companies including Hyundai Card and E-mart allowed call center workers to hang up on rude callers.