The relationship between universities and corporations here is much more fluid, or at least more unabashedly explicit. Yonsei puts its crest on things you can buy at the supermarket; it lets corporations put their brands on it. Banner advertisements for consulting firms line the long, stately boulevard between the university's front gate and its central quadrangle. One of our main libraries is called the Samsung Library.
In my Pop Culture class, we're currently looking at the historical emergence of the branded commodity and the increasing intrusiveness of advertising techniques from the postwar period to the present. When I asked the students whether they were perturbed that their library was named for a brand, they said no, because all of them want to go work for Samsung when they graduate. So, actually, it's a source of inspiration.
