It drew attention after it was revealed that the logo of the limited-edition Whisen air conditioner once released by LG Electronics was made of pure gold.
A YouTuber who runs a jewelry shop, "Lingling Unni," recently posted a video on her channel showing a case of replacing an air-conditioner logo with gold. A customer appearing in the video brought in logo pieces removed from the front of an air conditioner and asked for an analysis.
The customer said, "The delivery guy for the air conditioner said it was gold, and the advertisement also said it was gold," adding, "Back then, they said, 'If you take this off and bring it, we'll give you 10,000 won.'" The YouTuber's analysis confirmed it was pure gold, not 18K. The YouTuber told the customer, "The weight is just under one don, so I'll give you 713,000 won."
As the related video surpassed 1 million views and drew heavy interest, on the 15th another customer visited the jewelry shop with a logo in hand. The customer said, "I was going to throw it away after a neighborhood gold exchange told me it wasn't gold, but I saw the video and came back."
The logo requested this time also turned out to be pure gold upon analysis. After deducting the analysis fee and other costs, the YouTuber paid the customer a total of 748,000 won. A method for cleanly removing the logo—using fishing line to scrape and peel it off—was also shared.
In fact, LG Electronics in 2005 celebrated its fifth straight year as the world's No. 1 seller of air conditioners by selling units with pure-gold logos to the first 10,000 customers. In 2008, it also unveiled 10,000 limited-edition models featuring a pure-gold nameplate weighing one don engraved with the artist's signature.