The Korean ministry of Tourism and Culture appointed on 8 May newly-minted group ATEEZ as the ambassadors to promote South Korea to the rest of the world. In its first action as promotional ambassador, ATEEZ participated in advertising videos for Talk Talk Korea 2020 - an international Korea-related annual content competition held by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Foreign Affairs, and also participated in the production of the 'Overcome Together' video to increase awareness of the effects of COVID-19 and how to slow the spread of the deadly disease.
Atiny (the branded fan club name for the act) are proudly tweeting the news, congratulating their idols with recognition at the level of government.
The 8-member group took over from another popular new band, Stray Kids, who were Seoul's 2019 ambassadors. Each year, Seoul chooses the most promising Hallyu stars to represent modern Korean culture to the world. The so-called Kings of K-pop, EXO, have been appointed honorary Korea Tourism ambassadors and were models for wide-ranging overseas ads in 2018.
ATEEZ debuted in October 2018, and gained fast-growing popularity not only in Korea, but also abroad. The new entertainment brand saw sold-out performances during its first overseas tour in America and Europe in the four months following its debut. The act also ranked in the iTunes Album Global chart in 36 countries overseas with their last release 'Treasure Epilogue: Action to Answer' and became the first K-pop group of 2020 to reach no.1 on the iTunes US album chart.