Renault Korea launch videos used the 'Megalian hand' — boycotts and two apologies

On June 27, 2024, Renault Korea posted a promotional video for its new Grand Koleos SUV on the Renault Inside YouTube channel. A female brand manager in the video repeatedly made a finger-pinching gesture known in South Korea as the 'Megalian hand' — a symbol associated with Megalia, a now-defunct online feminist community whose tactic was mirroring misogynistic content, and which many Korean men read as a mockery of them. The timing was terrible: the Grand Koleos was the company's first new car in four years, the product of a 700 billion won (S$685 million) investment.

The backlash was swift and got worse with each reveal. Online communities found the same manager making the gesture in earlier promo videos for the Renault SM6 and Arkana, and users accused her of doing it deliberately; boycott calls followed. On June 28 Renault Korea removed all videos from its channel and posted a brief apology conceding it had failed to review the video thoroughly — but named no specific consequences, and critics called the response inadequate.

On June 29 the manager issued a personal apology that backfired: 'I knew that the hand gesture was a problematic, hateful expression, but I didn't realise that the hand gesture in my video would be interpreted as such.' Only on June 30, in a second apology, did the company announce her suspension and an internal investigative committee. By then the damage had spread to the business: alleged Renault Korea salespeople reported cancellations of Grand Koleos pre-orders, and online comments showed eroded customer trust.

By then the damage had spread to the business: alleged Renault Korea salespeople reported cancellations of Grand Koleos pre-orders, and online comments showed eroded customer trust. Communications scholars — Ewha's Kim Yung-wook on 'dissociation communication', Sogang's Kim Soo-yeon on showing how internal screening failed — said the company should have been more stringent and transparent. The case fit a pattern: GS25 in 2021 and gaming giants Nexon and Kakao Games in 2023 had already been targeted over the same gesture.

The pinch gesture carries a charged political meaning in South Korea, and companies from GS25 to Nexon and Kakao Games had already been hit for it — the reference was knowable.

The same manager appeared making the gesture across three model campaigns (Grand Koleos, SM6, Arkana), which read as deliberate rather than accidental.

The first apology admitted a review failure but named no consequences, and the manager's next-day apology contradicted itself, deepening the backlash.

The controversy landed exactly at the launch of the 700 billion won Grand Koleos program, converting a PR error into a commercial risk.

A symbol that means nothing in one market can end a launch in another; and a first apology that reads like damage control makes the second one worth less.

Renault Korea suspended the employee responsible and formed an internal investigative committee on June 30. On July 3, CEO Stephane Deblaise told staff on the company's internal site that content creation, communication and approval processes would be systematised, with internal ethics training thoroughly implemented to prevent recurrences. The Straits Times reported pre-order cancellations for the Grand Koleos and a visible loss of customer trust online, and PR academics said Renault Korea still needed to show exactly how its internal screening allowed the video through.