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The Korea Times

By Lee Gyu-lee
Scenes of characters exchanging drinks in Korean dramas and celebrities sharing their personal lives over alcohol on YouTube talk shows are easy to find these days.
In the popular drama Queen of Tears, the character Baek Hyun-woo (Kim Soo-hyun) is a lawyer from a rural background married to a leading chaebol heiress, Hong Hae-in.
He frequently finds solace in meeting an old friend in front of a convenience store, where they share beers and discuss the difficulties of his marriage.

Such scenes of characters drinking together are a staple in Korean dramas, often used as a narrative device: characters open up about their deepest troubles over drinks.
However, as drinking-related content grows in popularity and features some of the country’s top stars, experts and fans alike are voicing concerns that this trend could be pushing an already alcohol-friendly culture too far – especially for impressionable young viewers.
According to a recent report by the Korea Health Promotion Institute (KHPI), which reviewed 556 of the top shows by viewership ranking over the past five years, 488 of them contained scenes with alcohol, or 88 per cent.
Drinking content is dangerous. While TV only shows alcohol commercials late at night, drinking scenes can appear at any time
An internet user concerned about the influence on children of Korea’s drinking shows
The institute reported 86 problematic drinking scenes. Korean broadcasting regulations define a scene as problematic if it shows a positive portrayal of alcohol, negative behaviour or harmful behaviour while drinking, promotes underage drinking, or is for commercial purposes.
Meanwhile, streaming shows had on average 3.4 drinking scenes per episode in 2023, according to the institute’s monitoring; 82 out of 100 episodes depicted drinking.
National Assembly member Nam In-soon of the Democratic Party of Korea, who made the report public, noted that despite agencies’ efforts to set measures, grey areas make them ineffective.
“The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the KHPI revised their guidelines for drinking scenes in media last year, adding sections such as age restrictions and warning messages. But there are still legal blind spots since these guidelines are not mandatory for streaming services and YouTube,” she said.

When rapper Lee Young-ji, well-known as a “Gen Z icon”, stirred enormous buzz by starting her YouTube show Nothing Prepared in 2022, inviting celebrities to share their stories over drinks, many other YouTube variety shows featuring alcohol started to emerge.
The phenomenon even led to the coining of the word sool bang, which translates to “drinking show” in Korean, with popular celebrities running their own YouTube shows like Shin Dong-yup’s Zzan Bro, Sung Si-kyung’s We Would Meet, Jo Hyun-ah’s Thursday Night, Kian 84’s Drinking Interview and Soyou’s Guesthouse.
These shows have become one of the main channels for actors and singers to promote their new work, granting the shows opportunities to feature A-list guest stars. Lee’s channel has 3.93 million subscribers.
Pop culture critic Ha Jae-geun says that the viewers’ desire to get a peek into celebrities’ personal lives has led to such shows’ popularity.
“Since drinking shows were considered taboo in the past, breaking this taboo feels fresh and stimulating,” he says.
“People feel that these drinking shows allow for more honest and free conversations compared to following a strict script. There’s a perception that they share more authentic stories than scripted content.”
He points out that such shows can further push positive perceptions of alcohol and even encourage minors to consume alcohol in a country that already has a heavy drinking culture.
Many viewers have also expressed their concerns about the shows, especially as they often feature K-pop stars and actors who have a lot of younger fans.

“Drinking content is dangerous. While TV only shows alcohol commercials late at night, drinking scenes can appear at any time. That’s bad enough, but celebrities that kids love appear drinking; how can it not have an influence on them?” one internet user wrote online.
“When the host and guest [on those shows] talk about which alcohol they like and how much they drink, and later get drunk with blushes and slurred speech, is that really something we want to see?”
Another K-pop fan wrote: “I really hate it when my favourite idol appears on drinking shows, but because these shows are trending, we can’t even express our dislike. At the very least, they shouldn’t let minors watch. It’s not good to familiarise young people with drinking from an early age.”
As concerns rise, calls for additional measures against drinking culture exposure in media are also mounting. However, Ha, the critic, says it will not be easy to implement measures right away.
“It’s quite a challenging issue. Due to freedom of expression, it’s difficult to implement direct regulations. First, we should probably organise age ratings better. Then the industry needs to develop self-regulation to avoid excessive promotion of alcohol,” he says.
“If the problem becomes even more serious, we might need to consider direct regulations, but that’s something we need to discuss further.”
Read the full story at The Korea Times.


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