‘Snowdrop’ sponsors drop the show over “historical controversy”

A number of sponsors for the new South Korean drama Snowdrop have pulled out of the series.

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Several companies have withdrawn their sponsorships for the new historical-romance series, starring Jung Hae-in and BLACKPINK’s Jisoo, following its premiere on December 18. They include rice cake company Ssarijai and Heungil Furniture, among others, according to a new report by The Korea Herald.

“After watching the first episode of Snowdrop, we also thought that the viewers may become concerned about the historical controversy,” said a representative for Ssarijai in a statement to The Korea Herald. “So we asked the drama team to stop the sponsorship and our products will not appear from the third episode.”

One of Snowdrop’s major sponsors, P&J Group, has also reportedly dropped the series. “We sponsored the project without being aware of its content as we were told that it would have good publicity,” stated a representative for the company, according to Sports Chosun. “After its release, we requested to take our sponsorship off and they have confirmed to take our name out from the third episode.”

Snowdrop has come under fire for several scenes that viewers have called out for allegedly being disrespectful towards South Korea’s pro-democracy movement. These include a scene where a North Korean spy was saved by the female lead Young-ro (Jisoo) after she mistakes him as a pro-democracy activist.

In another scenes, a “historically significant” song symbolising the political movement had played during a chase between a member of the Agency for National Security Planning and a North Korean spy.

An online petition calling for the cancellation of the series has also been posted to the Blue House. It had claims that Snowdrop “defames the value and reputation of the democratisation movement”, and has reached over 200,000 signatures at the time of writing.

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