In a photo taken on September 21, 2018 Spam gift boxes are displayed at a supermarket in Seoul. - From the front lines of war to a staple of institutional catering, Spam is rarely seen as a gourmet ingredient -- but the canned pink meat holds a unique position in South Korea as a top-selling holiday gift. (AFP / Ed Jones)

Satirical posts about Spam-shaped building in South Korea mislead social media users

This article is more than one year old.
Published on May 21, 2021 at 06:10
1 min read
By Richard KANG, AFP South Korea

Multiple Facebook posts have shared an image of a building shaped like a can of Spam alongside a claim it shows the actual headquarters for the brand in South Korea. Comments from several social media users on the posts suggested they believed the claim. The image, however, was originally shared by pages that regularly post satirical content. As of May 21, 2021 the building pictured in the image was entirely residential.

The image was shared here on Facebook on May 13, 2021.

“This is the headquarters of the company that produces Spam located in the city of Pangyo,” Korean-language text overlaid in the image states. “[The design of the building] looks exactly like a Spam can!”

Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, taken on May 20, 2021.

Canned meat brand Spam is popular in South Korea.

It was introduced to the peninsula by the US army in the 1950s, when civilian food supplies were running low during the Korean War, AFP reported in 2018.

An identical image was also shared on Facebook here, here and here alongside a similar claim.

Comments on the posts indicated some Facebook users were misled by the claim.

One wrote: “Wow. I thought the building looked like a Spam can when I first saw it. But this is a real Spam company.”

Another said: “Have you seen this building? I had no idea Spam has headquarters in Pangyo.”

The image, however, was originally shared in satirical posts.

Satirical Facebook pages previously shared the image here and here.

The building shown in the image corresponds to this complex called “Alphadom City” located in the city of Pangyo, South Korea.

The building is entirely residential as of May 21, 2021 according to the Alphadom City information page here.

Spam is produced by Hormel Foods Corporation, which has its headquarters in the state of Minnesota in the US.

The product is distributed in South Korea by the conglomerate CJ Cheiljedang which is based in the capital Seoul.

Keyword searches did not find any credible reports that Hormel Foods Corporation or CJ Cheiljedang have relocated to the Alphadom City complex in Pangyo.

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Satirical posts about Spam-shaped building in South Korea mislead social media users

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