Franchesca Seong

Junior Editor, GSIS Newsletter

Every November 11th, South Korea observes the gifting holiday known as Pepero Day! Similar to Valentine’s Day, people will exchange the Korean stick-snack known as Pepero with their friends and loved ones due to the snack’s similar appearance to date 11/11. This year, it was nice to see students at GSIS exchange Pepero and GSA’s gift of Pepero with those who visited the lounge at NMH atn that day. Read and learn more about the origin story of Pepero Day.

But do you ever wonder how the day came to be? Well, in actuality, it was a marketing ploy by Lotte, who created Pepero. Because the stick-snacks look just like the “1” in 11/11, Lotte decided to make a fake holiday to boost their sales using the date that used the most “1”s. Of course there was controversy about this marketing tactic and there are some who boycott it but the boost in sales Lotte experiences near the holiday is undeniable.  

There is a fun story about the origin of Pepero Day that has not been confirmed, but it involves two middle school girls who exchanged Pepero in hopes that they would become tall and thin; just like Pepero! This story created an urban legend that in order to be the thinnest and tallest you could be, you would have to eat 11 boxes of Pepero on November 11th, at 11:11AM at exactly 11 seconds. Unfortunately, we will never know if this story is true or not. 

Funnily enough, Lotte’s marketing ploy is not the only controversy about Pepero. Possibly more well known internationally than Pepero is Japan’s Pocky snack and you may have heard of “Pocky Day” also celebrated on 11/11 in Japan. Well, Pocky’s company sued Lotte for copying their original stick-snack product but nothing came of it. Perhaps in retaliation, when Lotte created Pepero Day, Japan made their own Pocky Day to also boost their sales. 

Next time Pepero Day comes around, you will know why everyone is selling Pepero in fancy gift boxes. Maybe you’ll try the urban legend next year?