This missing hand gesture in Apple Korea's iPhone Air ad has the internet cackling

Apple’s latest marketing decision has sent the internet into fits of laughter, and it all comes down to a tiny hand gesture that most people wouldn’t think twice about. The tech giant quietly modified their iPhone Air advertisement for South Korea, removing a simple pinching motion that shows off the phone’s ultra-slim design.

While Apple’s global campaign features a hand demonstrating the iPhone Air’s thinness by pinching it between thumb and forefinger, Korean viewers get a completely different visual. The hand gesture vanished entirely from Apple’s Korean website and promotional materials, replaced with imagery that carefully avoids the controversial pose.

The reason? That innocent pinching gesture carries loaded meaning in Korea, where it became associated with Megalia, a now-defunct radical feminist online community. The symbol was used to mock male anatomy, turning what should be a straightforward product demonstration into a cultural minefield.

Koreaboo highlighted some hilarious comments from users in South Korea when they noticed the missing gesture. But this now even has users from around the world talking. A Reddit thread discussing Apple’s move exploded with nearly 1,200 upvotes and countless jokes about corporate sensitivity.

“We’re still doing this lol really that was so long ago I didn’t know it still mattered,” commented one Seoul resident, capturing the exhausted tone many Koreans have adopted toward the ongoing controversy.

This isn’t Apple’s first rodeo with regional advertising adjustments, but the pinching gesture saga represents something uniquely Korean. The controversy traces back to 2021 when multiple brands including convenience store GS25, chicken chains BBQ and Kyochon, and fashion retailer Musinsa all pulled advertisements and issued apologies after complaints about the hand gesture.

Even Renault Korea faced backlash in 2024 when videos allegedly showed employees making the gesture, leading to blocked content and corporate apologies. The finger pinching conspiracy theory, as some have dubbed it, claims there’s a coordinated effort to slip anti-male symbols into mainstream media.

Apple’s marketing team clearly did their homework, recognizing that avoiding potential controversy was worth the extra effort of creating Korea-specific materials. As one observer noted, “you don’t become a 3.4T company by not researching your market”.

The internet’s reaction suggests many find the whole situation absurd, with users flooding social media with pinching emojis and jokes about corporate caution. Whether Apple’s careful approach represents smart business or unnecessary appeasement depends on who you ask, but one thing’s certain: the internet is having a field day with Korea’s most sensitive hand gesture.