Yoo Hae-jin’s Burger King ad campaign ends... “Not because of Assassin(s), but because the contract expired”

[Financial News] The Burger King advertising campaign featuring actor Yoo Hae-jin as its model has ended. Burger King said the decision was unrelated to the controversy surrounding the film Assassin(s) and was made because the contract ended as originally scheduled.
A Burger King representative said in an interview with Ilgan Sports on the 6th, “Burger King hires models for short periods when launching new products. The contracts for major campaigns, including TV commercials for new truffle-related products advertised by Yoo Hae-jin, have now ended.” The representative added, “It wasn’t because of the film; the scheduled contract period simply came to an end.”

Burger King has routinely run advertising campaigns by hiring models for short periods when launching new products. Earlier this year, it also ran a short-term campaign featuring actor Noh Yoon-seo as its model when it launched The Crisper lineup.

Earlier, on the 4th, members of a conservative group held a protest outside Yoo Hae-jin’s home. Yoo appeared in Assassin(s), and they demanded that screenings of the film be halted and that the production team and cast apologize. They were also reported to have protested outside a company that had hired Yoo as an advertising model, demanding that he be replaced.
Yoo Hae-jin’s agency, VAST Entertainment, also issued an official statement the previous day, saying it would respond to false claims and personal attacks targeting the actor. The agency said, “We view very seriously the creation and spread of false information related to Yoo Hae-jin and malicious personal attacks and insults, as well as any acts that infringe on his privacy, threaten his personal safety, or damage his reputation.” It added, “We will take all possible measures to protect Yoo Hae-jin’s rights and interests and safety from illegal acts.”
Assassin(s), released on the 23rd of last month, is based on the shooting of First Lady Yuk Young-soo at the 29th Liberation Day commemoration ceremony on August 15, 1974. Adding cinematic imagination, the film traces the questions surrounding the incident and those behind it.
At the time, investigators concluded that Mun Se-gwang had acted alone, but the film treats the possibility of another person’s involvement as a hypothesis. Some in political circles criticized it as historical distortion, saying it could be taken to suggest that former President Park Chung-hee and the powerful institutions of the time were behind the incident. Others argued that it should be viewed as cinematic imagination, and the debate continues.
In response to the controversy, the production team issued an official statement on the 28th of last month, stressing, “This is not a film made to establish a particular historical conclusion anew or to deny or distort existing facts. Nowhere in the film is any particular person identified as being behind the incident, nor are the hypotheses and dramatic elements in the film presented as historical fact.”


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