Image: Apple

A long-awaited OLED upgrade to Apple's iPad Mini launched this week with an international marketing campaign. But a moment in one ad has drawn controversy in South Korea, as the pinch gesture in it means "you have a small penis" and carries popular connotations of feminism. The clip and images from it have been removed from Korea's Apple site, though it remains elsewhere.

The controversy over the so-called "C" gesture reached its height in 2023, reports the Korea Times , after a video produced for the Nexon game MapleStory included a similar gesture. Online denizens thought it was used on purpose as a pro-feminist message. As usual for the Internet, users started to try and find other instances of characters in Nexon's marketing imagery for other games to stoke the controversy.

More original reportage is at Korean site ithome.

If it seems silly, imagine if the ad showed the iPad Mini being spun like a plate on top of a middle finger extended toward the viewer.…