A Virtual Honorary Ambassador Of The Korea Tourism Organization Garners Attention For Looking Exactly Like A Famous K-Pop Idol
The Korea Tourism Organization, also known as KTO, is an organization under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism that promotes and provides information about traveling in South Korea.
Back in June, they introduced a new honorary ambassador to help promote the organization and their goals. Her name is Lizzie Yeo, and she’s a virtual human, the first to be an ambassador of the organization.
The use of a virtual human, which is a simulation of a human being created by computers, has become more popular in recent years as technology has progressed. For example, VTubers have become a huge part of streaming culture, such as for well-known Twitch streamers such as Ironmouse and Gawr Gura.
What has garnered the most attention for Lizzie isn’t the fact that she’s a virtual human, but that she bears an uncanny resemblance to a well-known K-Pop idol: Irene of Red Velvet.
In fact, many commenters believe that whoever designed Lizzie took a lot of inspiration from the idol, and it’s no mystery as to why that would be the case! Irene is known for her visuals, and having such a beautiful ambassador is sure to bring in more traffic for KTO.
Here are some of the comments on a forum post discussing Lizzie:
- “…? Is that not straight-up Irene, though? This is beyond uncanny.”
- “Is it even legal to make a virtual human based on a real human AND have them be on commercials…?”
- “HUH? I thought that was Irene, HAHA.”
- “Hmm. This is basically a virtual version of Irene, though. Isn’t it?”
- “WAIT, SHE’S VIRTUAL?! She’s really well-made.”
- “Whoa, she’s not real?”
What do you think of KTO’s new honorary ambassador?
