The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2025
Innisfree's essence ad showed a model pouring white liquid — Korea called it obscene
An influencer dunked her face in a bowl of the product. Female customers called it disgusting. Innisfree pulled the ad and apologised within days.
Innisfree · Amorepacific · 2025-09-23
What happened
In September 2025, Korean skincare brand Innisfree launched a campaign for its Green Tea Ceramide Milk essence. The promotional videos showed a female model pouring a white essence over her face with her eyes closed, and an influencer with over 400,000 subscribers dunking her face into a bowl of the product. One caption read: 'milk that improves your skin?'
The campaign drew widespread criticism online in South Korea. Many social media users, particularly women, said the imagery resembled sexual acts and accused the brand of being tone-deaf. One user wrote: 'It's disgusting that a brand targeting mainly female customers would mock women.' Another said the ad was 'seriously so disturbing' that she wanted to switch brands.
On 23 September 2025, Innisfree posted an apology on social media, saying it had received feedback about 'the discomfort they experienced' and had deleted the scene in question. The brand promised to be 'more meticulous in its entire process, from content planning to final review'.
Why it happened
- The creative direction prioritised visual impact — pouring, dunking, dripping — without testing whether the imagery would read as sexual rather than cosmetic to the target audience
- The brand's core customer base is young women, making the sexualised reading especially damaging: the ad appeared to mock the very audience it was selling to
- Influencer content was approved without a sensitivity review that would have flagged the specific visual connotations of the pouring and dunking shots
- The 'milk' framing in the caption compounded the problem by adding a layer of innuendo that the product name alone did not carry
The lesson
A product demo is not neutral — pouring, dripping and closed eyes carry connotations the brand did not intend. The target audience gets to decide what the ad means.
Aftermath
Innisfree deleted the contested content and issued a public apology. The brand, owned by Amorepacific, is one of South Korea's most recognised skincare labels. The case was cited alongside other Korean beauty advertising controversies as an example of brands failing to anticipate how product-demo imagery would be received on social media.
Sources
- The Straits Times: Innisfree apologises after skincare ad sparks backlash
- SG Signal: Innisfree essence ad backlash in South Korea
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