Presidential Candidate Slammed for Unauthorized “When Life Gives You Tangerines” Poster Parody Amid Election Season
Presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo, representing South Korea’s People Power Party, is facing intense backlash after using an unauthorized parody of a Netflix drama poster for his election campaign. The controversy erupted after Kim posted a modified version of the promotional poster for When Life Gives You Tangerines to his Facebook page on June 2 — the day of the 2025 presidential election.
In the altered image, actor Park Bo-gum’s face as the character Yoon Gwan-sik was replaced with Kim Moon-soo’s, while IU’s role as Oh Ae-soon was substituted with an image of Kim’s wife, Seol Nan-young. Even the original “Netflix Series” branding was changed to “People Power Party Series,” with the new release date also set to June 2. However, the poetic tagline “Still like flower petals, still dreaming” from the original remained untouched.
On June 3, a Netflix Korea representative confirmed to MyDaily that the campaign had not sought or received permission to use the image: “There was no prior consultation. We did not grant permission for this use.”
Online reaction has been swift and overwhelmingly negative. Across forums and social media, netizens criticized the campaign’s disregard for copyright and artistic integrity. Some of the most common sentiments included:
- “Did they even get permission?”
- “Why drag a drama into politics?”
- “Do they not understand copyright?”
- “Netflix is probably furious.”
This isn’t Kim Moon-soo’s first brush with unauthorized media use. In May, he faced criticism for incorporating a photo of pro-gamer Faker and a viral meme into campaign materials without approval. That post was later deleted following a complaint from Faker’s team, T1.
As the backlash grows, this latest misstep is being viewed not only as a legal concern but as a reflection of tone-deaf campaign strategy — raising questions about ethical boundaries in political messaging.
