"Bonghwa apples are delicious, but we do not advertise them."

The mastermind behind this eccentric Korean-language advertisement displayed on an electronic billboard in the middle of Times Square in New York, USA, turned out to be a government official in his 20s from Bonghwa-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do.

Officer Kim (27), an agricultural official at the Distribution and Special Crops Division of the Bonghwa-gun Agricultural Technology Center, recently spent 329,000 won of his own money to feature an ad promoting Bonghwa apples in New York's Times Square.

This was not done to export Bonghwa apples to the United States.

Instead, the goal was to leverage the buzz of "Bonghwa apple ad appears in New York's Times Square" on domestic social media and online platforms to promote Bonghwa and its local agricultural products.

According to Bonghwa-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do, the advertisement was broadcast on the Times Square billboard for 24 hours, starting at 1:36 PM on the 13th and ending at 12:36 PM on the 14th, for 15 seconds every 36 minutes.

The billboard displayed the quirky phrase, "Bonghwa apples are delicious, but we do not advertise them," written in a rough font.

It was an advertisement personally planned by Officer Kim.

To promote Bonghwa apples, he regularly creates content himself using "Bongsun-i," a virtual character active on Bonghwa-gun's official social media channels.

In a phone interview, Officer Kim stated, "We were not trying to promote apples in the United States." He added, "The main market for Bonghwa apples is domestic, and since there are not many exports to the US, I thought using county budget for US advertisements would not be appropriate."

He explained, "I wanted to promote it on domestic Instagram and online platforms through the fact that we advertised in Times Square, and ultimately promote Bonghwa-gun and our local agricultural products. I figured that we had to go this far for people to pay even a little more attention to Bonghwa apples."

The 329,000 won ad cost was entirely covered by Officer Kim out of his own pocket.

He began his public service career at the Gyeongju City Hall in 2019 and transferred to his hometown of Bonghwa-gun in 2024.

In Bonghwa-gun, after working at the Seokpo-myeon Office, he is currently in charge of agricultural product distribution and promotion at the Distribution and Special Crops Division of the Agricultural Technology Center.

Having started his public service career at the age of 20, Officer Kim has been utilizing his youthful sensibility to participate in running Bonghwa-gun's social media accounts with ideas of his own since last April.

News of the Times Square ad has been spreading through social media, generating continuous reactions.

Comments such as "An ad really came out in New York" and "I want to go eat Bonghwa apples" were posted on the content uploaded by Officer Kim.

The Bonghwa-gun Public Relations Office made it clear that this advertisement was not part of the county's official overseas advertising project.

A county official added, "This was done as part of Bonghwa apple promotional activities using the Bongsun-i character, where an employee came up with the idea and carried it out using personal funds. We are grateful and supportive of an individual employee working this hard to promote Bonghwa apples and Bonghwa."

Bonghwa-gun plans to continue its online promotions using the Bongsun-i character moving forward.

Officer Kim said, "Bonghwa is my hometown, and I hope people will come to know about a place called Bonghwa through the content I created myself. I want to playfully promote not just apples, but also the various agricultural products and charms of Bonghwa."

(Photo provided by Bonghwa-gun, Yonhap News)