3 thoughts on “I SEOUL U is no more. The new Seoul city slogan is…

  1. I happened upon an ad for this vote earlier, and I was pretty unimpressed by these slogans too… The only two that actually sounded decent were “Seoul My Soul” and “Amazing Seoul”, they sounded the most catchy to me (though the latter feels a bit generic). I think the best way to approach a slogan for Seoul, especially one that will be understood by English-speakers, is to use a slogan that embraces the very obvious and widely recognized homophony of “Seoul” with “soul” (as in “Seoul My Soul”, but that still feels a bit off somehow).

    My idea would be something like “Seoul Alive”, it not only invokes the homophone, but it conveys the dynamism and richness that the city ought to be known for

    1. Thanks for sharing, dokevie.

      I agree Seoul My Soul and Amazing Seoul are somewhat catchy. But they fall flat. While we all know what “amazing” means, it’s essentially a word devoid of meaning. A more descriptive adjective like stunning, unique, unparalleled, or enticing would carry more weight.

      The difficulty with using the Seoul/soul homophony is that using both sounds awkward/cheesy. It’s like, “She packed her pack.” You’d likely rewrite that as, “She packed her bag/knapsack/rucksack,” to avoid repeating “pack.” And only using only one of them doesn’t guarantee the double entendre will land.

      Seoul Alive is certainly no worse than the four finalists, but I don’t know if I’d make the connection between Seoul and soul there.

      While I agree it would represent the dynamic nature of Seoul, I think first, a decision on what aspect of Seoul to promote needs to be made. Without that direction, it’s tough to drill down on an effective slogan—the canvas is simply too wide.

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