Korean corporations to run Times Square ads celebrating alliance

Commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Korea-U.S. alliance, Samsung Electronics and LG Corporation are displaying video ads on the company billboards in Times Square.

On Thursday, Samsung Electronics released a video ad featuring 12 war heroes of the 1950-53 Korean War marking the 70th anniversary of the Korea-U.S. alliance.

The video will be aired in Times Square in New York for two weeks.

The 12 war heroes featured in the video include eight U.S. soldiers and four Koreans: General Douglas MacArthur; General James Alward Van Fleet and his son James Alward Van Fleet Jr.; chaplain William Earl Shaw and his son Lieutenant William Hamilton Shaw; Colonel Ralph Puckett Jr.; Colonel Dean Elmer Hess; U.S. Colonel Kim Young-oak, a Korean-American; General Paik Sun-yup; General Kim Doo-man; Colonel Kim Dong-seok; and Colonel Park Jung-mo.

The ad campaign is to pay tribute to sacrifices made during the war, which became the foundation of today’s freedom and prosperity, Samsung Electronics said in a release Thursday.

LG Corporation said that it will air a 30-second video on its billboard in Time Square with a message saying “LG Thanks and Honors Korean War Heroes” for two weeks.

Samsung Electronics has been running support programs for Korean War veterans since the 1990s. The company donated $5 million to The American Legion in 1996 and $1 million to the Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation’s Maintenance Fund in 2015.

LG companies, including LG U+ and LG Electronics, are also running support campaigns for Korean independence fighters and war veterans, making donations and giving out home appliances.

President Yoon Suk Yeol is scheduled to visit the United States from April 24 to 29 for a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden. Yoon and Biden will together visit the Korean War Memorial in Washington on April 25.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]