Public service ad specialist Lee Je-seok, head of the Ijesok Advertising Lab, staged a surprise performance satirizing the shortage of ballots in the 9th nationwide local elections (the June 3 local elections), fronting the phrases "The flower of democracy is sold out" and "Your precious 0 vote."
During Lee's studies at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York, she won a string of awards at international advertising festivals such as the One Show Festival, the CLIO Awards, and the ADDY Awards, and was called an "advertising genius." After returning to Korea, she has run the Ijesok Advertising Lab and continued public service ad campaigns addressing social issues including human rights, the environment, safety, and history.
On the morning of the 11th, in front of the National Election Commission in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi, Lee hung a banner that twisted the commission's signature phrase "The flower of democracy is elections" into "The flower of democracy is sold out." It satirized the situation in which some voters could not vote due to a shortage of ballots by using the expression "sold out." Officials of the National Election Commission reportedly blocked the performance on site and took down the banner.
A poster bearing the phrase "Your precious 0 vote" also appeared at the scene. The poster showed a hand reaching toward a ballot box, but the hand that should have been holding a ballot held nothing.
Lee reportedly viewed the ballot shortage as a problem that shakes public trust in the electoral system and produced a satirical poster to convey this intuitively. The intent was to express, in an advertising manner, the absurdity of voters being unable to cast a ballot because there were no ballots.