Goesan promotional video about a grandmother’s double life becomes an online sensation

A 79-year-old village elders’ leader has become the unexpected star of a popular promotional video for Goesan County in South Korea’s North Chungcheong Province.

The 1-minute-20-second video, titled “The Grandmother’s Double Life,” was posted on August 28. Within a week, it had received 1.45 million views on the county’s official Instagram account and 55,000 views on YouTube.

Shin Yong-suk, head of the senior citizens’ association in Sinpung Village, Yeonpung-myeon, appears at first as a familiar rural grandmother welcoming a grandchild home. After the grandchild leaves, she transforms into a modern grandmother who rides a new electric car and a motorcycle.

The video uses artificial intelligence elements and promotes Goesan’s local initiatives, including free buses and the county lifelong learning center. It also features Goesan Dam, Mungwang Reservoir and Seongbulsan. County public relations official Jeong Min-gi said the team used a B-movie comedy style to capture Goesan’s appeal, and described the response as an explosive increase in subscriptions, views and comments.

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The video was produced from an idea proposed and planned by Goesan County public relations official Park Eun-ji. We captured Goesan’s appeal with a B-movie comedy sensibility, and it has become popular. Subscriptions, views and comments are rising explosively, so it is truly on a winning streak.