Christmas Seals Sales

[Anchor Lead]

Christmas seals are growing in popularity again in South Korea this winter, getting out of the prolonged sales doldrums. That is thanks to the figures that are portrayed on the labels. Let's take a look.

[Pkg]

These are the 2016 Christmas seals published by the Korea National Tuberculosis Association. This year, ten Korean independence activists were portrayed in Christmas seals. They're distributed every year to raise funds for supporting tuberculosis patients. The 2016 seals display the portraits and lives of the ten freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives for the liberation of Korea, including Kim Koo, Ahn Jung-geun, Yoon Bong-gil and General Kim Jwa-jin. The long-forgotten Christmas seals are growing popular again in association with the current political and social tensions in South Korea.

[Soundbite] Lee Se-hyung(Seoul Resident) : "I like them since they feature the faces of freedom fighters. It gives me another opportunity to think of our nation."

The popularity of Christmas seals is soaring rapidly on social media, as more and more people post photos of their purchases and share the meaning of the seasonal labels. Some 2,000 seals were sold online each year. But this year, sales already neared 9,000 in October and November.

[Soundbite] Goh Young-jae(PR official, Korea National Tuberculosis Association) : "Schools and institutions participate in the Christmas seal donation campaign. But more people purchase seals on our online shopping mall. Sales have grown eight to nine times, compared to previous years."

The Korea National Tuberculosis Association is expecting that Christmas seal sales will exceed its goal of 3.6 million U.S. dollars this year.