The controversy began when a staff member shared photos of SEVENTEEN’s Mingyu, taken during a commercial shoot, on their personal social media account. These images included some that were more revealing, which alarmed fans.
The employee wrote, “Mingyu, who took up most of my photo album… I couldn’t erase it because I was nervous, but I guess I should start organizing them now…“
Fans were outraged by the violation of Mingyu’s privacy and quickly started trending hashtags demanding better protection for the idol.
In response, L’Occitane released an official statement addressing the situation.
“This is L’Occitane Korea. We sincerely apologize for the recent incident involving the unauthorized release of photos from the L’Occitane Asia Ambassador campaign, which were improperly distributed on the personal social media account of one of our employees. We acknowledge that there is no excuse for this breach and fully accept responsibility for what has occurred.
We take this matter with the utmost seriousness, and we deeply regret the distress caused to the artist and all the fans. We extend our deepest apologies to them. The employee involved has been completely removed from all duties, and immediate disciplinary action (suspension) has been enforced.
To prevent such incidents in the future, we will implement a comprehensive and regular training program for all employees. This program will emphasize the critical importance of respecting the copyrights, portrait rights, publicity rights and privacy of our brand ambassador.
We will ensure that every employee thoroughly understands and adheres to these principles, and we will approach this process with a strong sense of responsibility. We deeply regret the occurrence and accept full responsibility. Once again, we sincerely apologize to the artist and all the fans.”
Korean netizens expressed their confusion and frustration, questioning why the employee had these photos saved on their phone in the first place. They commented, “Why are they displaying this on their SNS for everyone to see…isn’t this sexual harassment towards Mingyu?“, “Some people didn’t see the problem, but when I asked them to imagine this happening to a female idol, they quickly changed their tune“, “Please think before doing something“…
Source: Krb
