The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is launching a nine-day climate pop-up in Hongdae from Aug. 22 to Aug. 30, using Yumi’s Cells and escape-room style missions to make net-zero policy more engaging for young adults. The free event converts a public square into Save It! Cell Village, with challenges tied to plastic waste, blue carbon and fast fashion. Officials also unveiled a unified climate communications brand, Carbon 0-Impact, alongside the campaign.
A poster for Yumi’s Cells / Korea Times file
How do you persuade media-saturated young adults to care about net-zero emissions? In Korea, the answer lies in popular culture, digital comic characters and locked-room real-world puzzles.
Starting Saturday, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is launching a nine-day pop-up experience in Hongdae — the bustling district in western Seoul renowned for youth culture and nightlife — designed to translate complex environmental policy into interactive entertainment. Partnering with the hit webtoon series “Yumi’s Cells,” the government is converting a central public square into a climate-themed escape room game titled “Save It! Cell Village.”
From Aug. 22 to Aug. 30, visitors can tackle hands-on micro-missions alongside animated personas. In one challenge, participants fish plastic debris out of a simulated ocean at a “Blue Carbon” basin. In another, they attempt to free a jailed “Fashion Cell” by cracking clues related to fast fashion and textile waste. The daily late-afternoon event is free of charge and open to the public without prior reservation.
