The Bellygom Visits NYC’s Pier 17 (All Photos By Gail)
How lucky was I that an accidental glance at a friend’s Instagram feed brought me to Pier 17 at the tail end of a two-day visit by a 50-foot inflatable Pink Bear from Korea, which goes by the name of Bellygom. Answer: so lucky! On the morning of September 21st, I noticed a friend had posted a photo of her with the tall ships of Pier 17 in the background, along with a very large pink teddy bear. The accompanying hashtag simply said “#BellygomNY.” Of course, I had to investigate immediately. Because, Giant Pink Bear.
It turns out, Bellygom is a popular YouTube character created in 2018 by an in-house start-up of Korea’s Lotte Home Shopping Channel. It currently has over 300 million YouTube views and over 1.1 million followers on social media. Way more than me, for sure.
I Made Him a Little Pinker Than he is for This Photo
I headed down to the to Seaport after work and took a bunch of photos of Bellygom from all different angles. There was not much of a crowd at that time of day, so I got some good shots! Looking at Bellygom is said to incite feelings of happiness. I can confirm this is true: looking at the Bellygom made me feel extremely happy. You should have seen my face. So happy.
There were a couple of friendly brand representatives on-site, selling Bellygom Merch and answering questions from fans and curious onlookers. Bellygom’s pop-up at the pier was organized to draw attention to the Korea Brand Expo which was held in NY during that same period and to help in Busan’s World Expos 2030 Bid. I hope it helped!
Here he is with the Financial District in the background.
Thank you Bellygom for being this week’s very special Pink Thing!
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