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Friday, October 08, 2021
Netflix Edits ‘Squid Game’ Phone Number After Woman Is Bombarded by Calls and Texts
www.thewrap.com: Fans who thought the phone number in the hit Netflix series “Squid Game” was part of some expanded game ended up harassing a woman in South Korea.
As humorous as the headline to this article was to me upon first glance, upon second consideration it is honestly kind of terrifying. The power that all media has is shockingly huge. This event is a great example of a time when the line between fictional entertainment and reality got blurred, causing significant harm potential to a subject. And of course, we cannot overlook how inconvenient this was for the woman who was unfortunate enough to own that phone number. This little mistake overlooked by every person in the ‘Squid Game’ team had a big impact, and unfortunately that is the unavoidable risk and responsibility that is taken on when you are in the media industry. This responsibility collectively falls on the editors, writers, directors, and everyone else who laid eyes on this moment of the screenplay. This has caused harm to this woman, and for that not only should they edit their piece, but also they should directly attempt to pursue harm reduction with her.
28. This is an incredibly bizarre oversight in my opinion. I do not understand how the art director or props person on “Squid Game” did not think to check the legitimacy of the phone number. It is pretty simple to look up a phone number, especially because the woman owns a business. I am just curious how the artist came up with the phone number randomly. I doubt it was intentional, but I am very confused by the ignorant action of the creative team at Squid Game. It is a reminder of how careful we must be as artists. However, I worked as a properties intern and whenever I put phone numbers on flyers on documents for production down in a black box space, I checked for an owner. In the article Kim said that she wondered if they would have reacted differently if it were a major company. However, I wonder if fans googled the number and would have seen that it belonged to a major company. In any event it would affect the major company less because they anticipate high call volume and could easily replace their number.
Netflix’s latest hit TV series Squid Game is a Korean drama that has recently garnered worldwide attention and popularity. And of course, with the enormous surge in global recognition and acclaim comes an overzealous fan culture. Prior to reading this article, I had already seen several social media posts regarding how the number shown as a plot point in an episode turned out to be someone’s legitimate phone number and resulted in them suffering intense spam and harassment. It’s honestly a little surprising and very concerning how Netflix had failed to consider this aspect and its consequence; Kim Gil-Young, the Korean woman who uses the number to run her dessert shop, stated that she was diagnosed with acute stress disorder along with the business end of her store suffering due to her being unable to distinguish what is an actual order and who is a Squid Game fan. This is very serious and the lack of further action from Netflix (other than a money offer to Kim and cutting out the scenes showing the number) is disappointing; as the entertainment industry advances, the consideration for the potential impact of all aspects and details in a project is needed more than ever.
This seems like a pretty big oversight on Netflix’s part. I am sure they did not expect just how popular this show would become, seeing as it is on track to be the most popular series Netflix has ever released. Nonetheless, whether they planned on releasing it to ten people or their entire platform, they should have been much more careful about putting a phone number on screen. I’ve just started watching Squid Game myself, and I am quite enjoying it. That being said, with the context of the show now in mind, I am even more surprised that they overlooked this detail with the phone number – it is displayed very prominently on screen several times as a very prominent part of the plot. I am not sure of there is a Korean equivalent of the classic 555-xxxx number scheme in the US, as this is such a simple way of avoiding such a situation. That being said, I can understand not wanting to use such a trick as it is glaringly obvious to anyone who knows the trick. In any case, this is still an egregious error on Netflix’s part, and I do hope people who saw the unedited version have some common decency and stop calling the number.
This reminds of me the whole thing with that 867-5309 song by Tommy Tutone (which, by the way, I only know about because of Parks & Rec, when Leslie got super duper blackout drunk and "called 867-5309 a hundred times," considering I never actually listened to the song). A bunch of people called 867-5309 and the family that had the number in a certain area code kept getting calls from random people and eventually had to disconnect the number, after which it was snapped up by companies. I had thought there were fictitious telephone numbers reserved for instances like this, when media needs a phone number to display. Like the others say, this seems like a massive oversight on Netflix's part (or just any of the show runners?). I hope the woman with the Squid Game number is okay, though, it must be really stressful to receive so many calls especially in relation to that show.
I really loved watching Squid Game and the number of the games appears very frequently in the first two episodes. I feel like this kind of thing is an issue they would check early on in the production process to make sure that something like this doesn’t happen. Seems pretty irresponsible of their team to let this go through. It’s also kind of surprising that they didn’t catch this considering the level of detail they put into everything else in the show. In an interview they even talked about how they added weeds and such at the bottom edges of the 4th game set for the realism, so why would they not get a pretty large detail? Maybe it would be amusing if the show didn’t explode in popularity like it did, but I can’t imagine what it would be like dealing with this kind of volume. I’m glad they went back to edit it and I hope this woman won’t have to keep getting unwanted calls.
This seems like a really basic mistake on the part of the Squid Game creative team. I know that in the United States, phone numbers starting with 555 are generally used on film, as no actual phone number begins with those numbers. The media has the power to upend people's lives, especially with things that become wildly popular. Squid Game has quickly become one of the most popular television shows on Netflix, and is being talked about all over social media. So it's no surprise that some of its fans should be interested enough to call a phone number found within the show, thinking it'll lead to something more that was set up by the show's creators. It's the production team's responsibility to make sure that what they create does not harm anyone, and it appears that they messed up in this case, causing a woman to suffer from acute stress disorder after having to deal with her business being upended. Hopefully this is a lesson to them for the future.
I find this mistake really crazy. For a country that censors every brand, knife, even tattoos that come across the screen- it is weird to me that there is not some protocol for onscreen phone numbers. I feel like it is a really simple thing they could have researched and fixed. On the other hand, I do find this very funny because with a project this big, the simplest things are often overlooked. This reminds me of the Starbucks scandal in the end season of Game of Thrones where the production staff accidentally missed an actor’s cup in the shot. I feel like with this mistake, they needed to have a phone number, they didn’t want to spend much time on it, so they string together random numbers or perhaps people birthdays or something thinking that there was no way that would actually end up being someone’s number. I do feel bad for the person who’s number ended up being that one though. Also find it weird people actually call the number form the show.
8 comments:
As humorous as the headline to this article was to me upon first glance, upon second consideration it is honestly kind of terrifying. The power that all media has is shockingly huge. This event is a great example of a time when the line between fictional entertainment and reality got blurred, causing significant harm potential to a subject. And of course, we cannot overlook how inconvenient this was for the woman who was unfortunate enough to own that phone number. This little mistake overlooked by every person in the ‘Squid Game’ team had a big impact, and unfortunately that is the unavoidable risk and responsibility that is taken on when you are in the media industry. This responsibility collectively falls on the editors, writers, directors, and everyone else who laid eyes on this moment of the screenplay. This has caused harm to this woman, and for that not only should they edit their piece, but also they should directly attempt to pursue harm reduction with her.
28. This is an incredibly bizarre oversight in my opinion. I do not understand how the art director or props person on “Squid Game” did not think to check the legitimacy of the phone number. It is pretty simple to look up a phone number, especially because the woman owns a business. I am just curious how the artist came up with the phone number randomly. I doubt it was intentional, but I am very confused by the ignorant action of the creative team at Squid Game. It is a reminder of how careful we must be as artists. However, I worked as a properties intern and whenever I put phone numbers on flyers on documents for production down in a black box space, I checked for an owner. In the article Kim said that she wondered if they would have reacted differently if it were a major company. However, I wonder if fans googled the number and would have seen that it belonged to a major company. In any event it would affect the major company less because they anticipate high call volume and could easily replace their number.
Netflix’s latest hit TV series Squid Game is a Korean drama that has recently garnered worldwide attention and popularity. And of course, with the enormous surge in global recognition and acclaim comes an overzealous fan culture. Prior to reading this article, I had already seen several social media posts regarding how the number shown as a plot point in an episode turned out to be someone’s legitimate phone number and resulted in them suffering intense spam and harassment. It’s honestly a little surprising and very concerning how Netflix had failed to consider this aspect and its consequence; Kim Gil-Young, the Korean woman who uses the number to run her dessert shop, stated that she was diagnosed with acute stress disorder along with the business end of her store suffering due to her being unable to distinguish what is an actual order and who is a Squid Game fan. This is very serious and the lack of further action from Netflix (other than a money offer to Kim and cutting out the scenes showing the number) is disappointing; as the entertainment industry advances, the consideration for the potential impact of all aspects and details in a project is needed more than ever.
This seems like a pretty big oversight on Netflix’s part. I am sure they did not expect just how popular this show would become, seeing as it is on track to be the most popular series Netflix has ever released. Nonetheless, whether they planned on releasing it to ten people or their entire platform, they should have been much more careful about putting a phone number on screen. I’ve just started watching Squid Game myself, and I am quite enjoying it. That being said, with the context of the show now in mind, I am even more surprised that they overlooked this detail with the phone number – it is displayed very prominently on screen several times as a very prominent part of the plot. I am not sure of there is a Korean equivalent of the classic 555-xxxx number scheme in the US, as this is such a simple way of avoiding such a situation. That being said, I can understand not wanting to use such a trick as it is glaringly obvious to anyone who knows the trick. In any case, this is still an egregious error on Netflix’s part, and I do hope people who saw the unedited version have some common decency and stop calling the number.
This reminds of me the whole thing with that 867-5309 song by Tommy Tutone (which, by the way, I only know about because of Parks & Rec, when Leslie got super duper blackout drunk and "called 867-5309 a hundred times," considering I never actually listened to the song). A bunch of people called 867-5309 and the family that had the number in a certain area code kept getting calls from random people and eventually had to disconnect the number, after which it was snapped up by companies. I had thought there were fictitious telephone numbers reserved for instances like this, when media needs a phone number to display. Like the others say, this seems like a massive oversight on Netflix's part (or just any of the show runners?). I hope the woman with the Squid Game number is okay, though, it must be really stressful to receive so many calls especially in relation to that show.
I really loved watching Squid Game and the number of the games appears very frequently in the first two episodes. I feel like this kind of thing is an issue they would check early on in the production process to make sure that something like this doesn’t happen. Seems pretty irresponsible of their team to let this go through. It’s also kind of surprising that they didn’t catch this considering the level of detail they put into everything else in the show. In an interview they even talked about how they added weeds and such at the bottom edges of the 4th game set for the realism, so why would they not get a pretty large detail? Maybe it would be amusing if the show didn’t explode in popularity like it did, but I can’t imagine what it would be like dealing with this kind of volume. I’m glad they went back to edit it and I hope this woman won’t have to keep getting unwanted calls.
This seems like a really basic mistake on the part of the Squid Game creative team. I know that in the United States, phone numbers starting with 555 are generally used on film, as no actual phone number begins with those numbers. The media has the power to upend people's lives, especially with things that become wildly popular. Squid Game has quickly become one of the most popular television shows on Netflix, and is being talked about all over social media. So it's no surprise that some of its fans should be interested enough to call a phone number found within the show, thinking it'll lead to something more that was set up by the show's creators. It's the production team's responsibility to make sure that what they create does not harm anyone, and it appears that they messed up in this case, causing a woman to suffer from acute stress disorder after having to deal with her business being upended. Hopefully this is a lesson to them for the future.
I find this mistake really crazy. For a country that censors every brand, knife, even tattoos that come across the screen- it is weird to me that there is not some protocol for onscreen phone numbers. I feel like it is a really simple thing they could have researched and fixed. On the other hand, I do find this very funny because with a project this big, the simplest things are often overlooked. This reminds me of the Starbucks scandal in the end season of Game of Thrones where the production staff accidentally missed an actor’s cup in the shot. I feel like with this mistake, they needed to have a phone number, they didn’t want to spend much time on it, so they string together random numbers or perhaps people birthdays or something thinking that there was no way that would actually end up being someone’s number. I do feel bad for the person who’s number ended up being that one though. Also find it weird people actually call the number form the show.
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