The food giant said Monday it had wrapped up seaweed-sampling events at the home grounds of Major League Soccer's Los Angeles FC and Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants, distributing around 2,000 packs of Bibigo seaweed across the two dates.
The events form part of the Sea-Sports project, a new initiative this year under South Korea's oceans ministry, through which the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives is pitching Korean seaweed to American fans as a healthy, convenient snack.
CJ CheilJedang served as a core partner in the federation's "GIM" global branding push, running two of the seven planned events.
The first sampling took place on Aug. 15 at Los Angeles' BMO Stadium during an LAFC match, timed to coincide with the company's KCON LA culture festival.
The second, on Aug. 29 at Oracle Park, was tied to a bobblehead giveaway for South Korean outfielder Lee Jung-hoo as the Giants hosted the Arizona Diamondbacks.
"Working with the fisheries federation gave us a meaningful chance to introduce the distinctive taste of bibigo seaweed to American sports fans," a CJ CheilJedang official said, adding that the firm would work to bring Korean seaweed into consumers' daily lives worldwide.
AJP Takeaways
• CJ CheilJedang sampled about 2,000 packs of bibigo roasted seaweed at Los Angeles FC and San Francisco Giants home games, targeting mainstream U.S. sports crowds rather than Korean-diaspora consumers.
• The push is part of the oceans ministry's new Sea-Sports project, with CJ acting as a core partner in the fisheries federation's "GIM" global branding campaign, handling two of seven planned events.
• The campaign signals a broader industry bid to reframe Korean seaweed ("gim") as an everyday Western snack, extending the K-food wave beyond restaurants and specialty aisles.
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