A promotional video titled "Grandma's Double Life," posted on the official social media accounts of Goesan County in North Chungcheong Province, has drawn a strong response online.
The county said on the 3rd that it released the video, titled "An 82-Year-Old Who Switched to an Ioniq 5 N That Beats the M4," on its official Instagram and YouTube channels on the 28th of last month.
The video spread quickly after its release. It passed 1 million views on Instagram within two days of posting and has now reached 1.43 million views, the highest for a single piece of content since the county opened its official social media accounts.
The video was made to overturn the familiar image of an aging farming community and to show that older residents in Goesan can live active and enjoyable lives.
Its main character is Shin Yong-sook, 79, head of the senior citizens' association in Sinpung village, Yeonpung township. The video opens with the ordinary daily life of a village grandmother left alone after seeing off her grandchild, but an unexpected second life soon unfolds.
The older residents in the video draw laughs with witty lines such as "I pulled in some money in the bull market" and "They said they'd give an electric vehicle subsidy, so I switched right away."
The video also weaves in local landmarks including Goesan Dam, Mungwang Reservoir and Mount Seongbul, along with major county programs and facilities such as free rural buses, heat shelters and a lifelong learning center.
By turning the daily life of rural seniors into a comic, twist-driven story, the county delivered both entertainment and information instead of a stiff policy promotion, according to the assessment.
Goesan County also used generative artificial intelligence to add visual appeal, an unusual step for local government promotional content.
The single video had a wide impact. About 1,000 new followers joined the county's official Instagram account.
Earlier short-form content is drawing renewed attention as well. "King of Flattery," a promotional video for the Red Taste Festival that featured county officials themselves and was produced in May, has now recorded 978,000 views.
"We produced unconventional short-form content to make Goesan feel more familiar to people," a county official said. "We will continue to present fresh content that allows us to communicate with the public in an enjoyable way."
