Starting in 2015, the slogan "I Seoul U" has been used to promote South Korea's capital city to the globe, being used as a brand to advertise tourism to the city of Seoul.

With the gradual growth in popularity of K-culture, such as K-pop and K-dramas, more and more people from across the globe have directed their footsteps to South Korea. 

While "I Seoul U" had high expectations from South Koreans and was seen as an improvement from the previous slogan, "Hi Seoul," "I Seoul U" was subject to ridicule from international English speakers. 

While "I Seoul U" was derived from the Korean phrase, "My and Your Seoul," many English speakers were perplexed by the slogan.

Finally, the city of Seoul is ushering in a new era of tourism by updating its slogan and launching a poll to select a new one.

The four candidate slogans were "Seoul for you," "Amazing Seoul," "Seoul, my Soul," and "Make it happen Seoul." From these four, the top two and final candidates were narrowed to "Seoul, my soul" and "Seoul for You."

The poll titled "Seoul New City Brand Slogan Preference Survey" was conducted in South Korea as well as overseas. And the result was released by Seoul Metropolitan Government on February 3, 2023.

According to the result, "Seoul, my soul" received 148,000 votes (37.3%) and took first place. "Seoul for you," which received 138,000 votes (34.9%), came in second.

Interestingly, overseas voters preferred "Seoul, my soul," while South Korean voters preferred "Seoul for You."

The city of Seoul explained that the difference in votes between the first and second places was only 2.4% of the total number of votes and that the preferred slogan in Korea and abroad was different, so it was necessary to collect additional opinions. The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced they will have another poll between "Seoul, my soul" versus "Seoul for you," and make a final decision by the end of this month.