In celebration of Korean Independence Day, which commemorates the independence of South Korea, the campaign organized honorary graduation ceremonies and created graduation albums for student activists who were unfairly expelled due to their involvement in the independence movement. To restore the once unattainable youthful appearances of these activists, the campaign utilized AI deep learning and de-aging technologies to produce graduation photos from the activists’ lifetime pictures, and compiled these into graduation albums that were distributed to the descendants.

Binggrae is food company of South Korea that has been continuously supporting the descendants of independence activists since 2018. The chairman of Binggrae is the granddaughter's husband of one of the most famous independence activists in Korea.

Korea's Independence Day is a national holiday in South Korea commemorating the country's liberation from colonial rule on August 15, 1945. This day is celebrated by all South Koreans as a day to honor the sacrifice and dedication of independence activists. The citizens of South Korea hold deep gratitude towards these independence activists, who are considered national heroes. However, many people are unaware of the student independence activists and the fact that they were expelled from their schools for their involvement in the independence movement.

Also, in Korea, there is a culture where students spend almost a year preparing for how they will pose for their graduation album photos. Receiving a graduation album is such an important tradition at Korean graduation ceremonies that every student wants to have one.

Korea was under colonial rule for 35 years, from August 29, 1910, to August 15, 1945.

During this time, many Korean citizens stood against oppression, fighting for their country's independence. Among them were 2,596 brave young students.

Student independence activists faced harsh consequences for their involvement in the national liberation movement, including imprisonment and expulsion from school. Binggrae, long-standing supporters of patriots' descendants since 2018, aimed to honor these students with the graduation ceremony they truly deserve. We decided to use technology to provide a greater emotional impact to the public and the descendants of the student independence activists.

-The citizens of South Korea highly praised "Heroes' Belated Graduation" as the best example of utilizing AI technology in CSR and creativity. And above all, the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs' initiative has enabled our heroes to graduate after a century and receive a diploma in the name of the country, shedding their label as 'expelled' students.

-A lot of citizens of South Korea said “Heroes’ Belated Graduation is the direction where innovation should go forward”.

-13.7M+ VIEWS and 54.6M+ IMPRESSIONS Just In A Week
(From Social To Traditional Media)

-Extensive Media Coverage (Without Media Coverage Request)

- Naturally spread across YouTube influencers, online communities, and social media (Without Any Media Spend)

-With the support of positive consumer responses, Binggrae recorded an 'A' grade in the Korean ESG Standards Institute's ESG evaluation for five consecutive years.

This graduation album mostly contains history of the independence movement and the meritorious records of the student independence activists. So it is hard to translate all of it. Sorry for inconvenience.

Binggrae placed sincerity as the highest value in the [Heroes’ Belated Graduation] campaign. Despite the student independence activists' sacrifices for the country, history remembers these activists as ‘expelled’ students. We wanted to eliminate this dishonorable title of being expelled students. Using AI technology, we restored the school days' looks of them and delivered graduation albums to the descendants. This series of actions served to alleviate the lifelong sorrow of the student independence activists and their descendants. Above all, a lot of people who empathized with the sincerity showed interest and support for the campaign.