By Alek Sigley, Tongil Tours founder and postgraduate student at Kim Il Sung University.
The May 1st Stadium logo on a bottle cap.
In North Korea there’s a brand that specialises in ice cream and bottled drinks that is as far as I can tell, much loved by local people. It uses one of the country’s most recognisable architectural landmarks for its name and logo– the May the 1st Stadium, where North Korea’s famous mass gymnastics celebrations are held. The May the 1st Stadium (5월1일경기장) brand manufactures its products in its own plant, and sells them in shops and snack stalls all over the country, as well as in a newly-opened specialty store on Ryomyong Street, on the other end of the road from the Kim Il Sung University Foreign Student Dormitory.
According to the Choson Shinbo newspaper, the May 1st Stadium brand began in 2006 as a work unit within the stadium itself, where the Arirang Mass Games were being held. They began producing ice cream to sell to the spectators, in the beginning making a fermented bean flavour, a mung bean flavour, and then a honey milk flavour, all of which were reportedly very popular. Things took off and they began selling their ice creams at snack stalls in the rest of Pyongyang, and then in other cities in the DPRK too.
These days, the May the 1st Stadium brand makes a diverse range of products, from ice cream to yoghurt, energy drinks to jelly, in a wide range of flavours. It is also employing advertising to promote its wares, placing it at the forefront of North Korea’s fledgling consumer culture. Its ice creams and drinks sell for around 2,000 local Korean won. That’s less than 25c USD. Let’s take a look at some of its products, starting with its ice cream.
-
- Walnut ice cream. Han Sol’s recommendation.
-
- Strawberry ice cream with very cool package design.
-
- Peanut and chocolate ice cream.
-
- Strawberry, milk, and coffe flavoured ice cream.
-
- Strawberry cone ice cream.
-
- Chocolate cone ice cream.
-
- Coffee ice cream bar.
-
- Watermelon ice cream bar with chocolate “seeds”.
-
- The May 1st Stadium watermelon ice cream bar reminds me of this popular Japanese summer snack.
-
- Milk and chocolate flavoured ice cream. This reminds me of something we used to eat when I was a child in Australia.
-
- Cacao ice cream.
-
- Chocolate ice cream bar.
-
- Wafer ice cream sandwich.
-
- Chocolate and cookie ice cream in a tub. That looks awfully like an Oreo…
-
- Strawberry ice cream with bits of dried strawberry in a tub. In addition to these two there’s also a coffee flavoured tub ice cream in the same set.
Now let’s look at some of the May the 1st Stadium brand’s beverages.
-
- Banana flavoured milk in a bag.
-
- An energy drink.
-
- Pear juice.
-
- Strawberry drinking yoghurt.
-
- Original drinking yoghurt.
-
- Strawberry drinking yoghurt for kids.
-
- Coffee flavoured milk.
-
- Sour yoghurt drink for children.
The May 1st Stadium brand also manufactures this sports drink series which comes packaged in a dumbbell-shaped bottle. After you’ve consumed your drink, you can fill the bottle with a mixture of water and sand to make a 1kg weight. That’ll give you something to use your newfound energy on!
-
- Nikolai from Tongil Tours with the yellow no. 2 drink.
-
- The red no. 1 drink.
-
- The red no. 1 drink being used as a weight.
According to the label, the red no. 1 energy drink, “strengthens muscles”, “improves competition performance”, and “increases height”. The yellow no. 2 purportedly “deals with fatigue”, “increases height”, and “improves ability to study”.
Aside from ice cream and beverages, the May the 1st Stadium brand also produces jellies.
Mandarin (귤) flavoured jelly in a bead shaped package.
Banana flavoured jelly in a conical package.
The May the 1st Stadium Brand has also become one of the first brands to set up its own specialty store (like that of Naegohyang in one of my previous posts). I first stumbled across this shop while exploring Ryomyong Street with some of the other Kim Il Sung University foreign students (Han Sol and Victor who I’ve mentioned in previous posts, and Sasha, a Korean Uzbek on short term summer exchange from his university in Moscow). The store is well-located, situated right in the heart of Ryomyong Street next to the 70 Storey Apartment (the tallest building in the street). It is well decorated and maintained, and deals exclusively in May the 1st Stadium brand products.
The outside of the shop.
The stairs up to the shop.
-
- The inside. There’s an area with some tables and chairs. And a TV so you can chat about the latest revolutionary soap opera when there’s a lull in the conversation. Indeed, what appears to be a young couple on date was sitting there when this photo was taken.
-
- The inside (02).
-
- The counter.
-
- Ice creams in the foreground and drinks in the back.
The shop is also decorated with this rather nicely designed clock.
Stuck to the bottom of the fridges were some flyers advertising some of the May the 1st Stadium brand’s new products.
-
- “Natural flavours”, “high quality”. This flyer advertises ice creams such as a spirulina ice cream and the walnut ice cream featured above. It emphasises the health benefits of these ice creams, their lack of artificial additives and the cleanliness of the factory.
-
- “A 21st century miracle health water”, “Hydrogen Water”. According to the flyer it “prevents aging” (I guess that means its slows aging), “prevents malignant tumours”, “helps with fatigue”, is good for the skin, and contains of a hell of a lot of vitamin C, among other health benefits.
-
- “Overflowing power”, these energy drinks are apparently good for strenuous exercise, heavy labour, and mental exertion. They deal with fatigue and stress, contain an abundance of minerals and strengthen muscles.
The use of English in the flyer on the left suggests that much like in other East Asian countries, English is now being used in North Korean marketing to make products look more international with connotations of high quality.
For a few years already I’ve noticed that although the streets and television channels are devoid of advertising, you can find flyers such as these inside shops and other retail spaces. I also noticed some of these flyers stuck inside the windows of snack stalls outside, such as in the photo below.
The May the 1st Stadium Brand also maintains a strong presence at the Pyongyang International Trade Fair. At this spring’s fair, I noticed it had placed two prominent advertisements outside the exhibition hall. It also maintained a booth which seemed quite popular. This booth had a screen by the side advertising some of its new products, including the dumbbell energy drink.
Anyway, it’s one to watch out for. And who knows? One day it may come to a supermarket near you!
