In just 1 month, Starship Entertainment and the company’s rookie male group – CRAVITY were constantly caught in plagiarism controversies. It’s like SM has become a role model for Starship to follow. In any aspect, Starship could borrow from SM groups to use for CRAVITY. From the logo and the MV being accused of plagiarising EXO, the choreography “inspired” by NCT, and most recently is imitating the fandom name of Red Velvet.
Specifically the fandom name of CRAVITY is Luvity which is a combination of “CRAVITY” and “Luv”. Coincidentally, this is similar to the way Red Velvet’s fandom was created. “Red Velvet” and “Luv” together form “Reveluv”. In addition, Red Velvet often calls their fans intimately with the shorter name “Luvie / Luvies”. The Korean pronunciation of LUVITY (러 비티) and the shortened fandom name of Red Velvet (러비 / 러비 들) are very similar. So the announcement of CRAVITY’s fandom name has created a big controversy.
Plagiarising products can be temporarily ignored, but fandom names are representative for fans so they will probably not let it slide to see their names used by a different fandom. The Red Velvet fan community immediately voiced their rights, expressing their opinions by asking Starship to change CRAVITY’s official fandom name. The group’s hashtag asking for justice has been tweeted continuously and entered the top global trending, enough to see how angry Reveluvs are.
But not all netizens agree with Red Velvet’s fandom. Many conflicting opinions have been raised about this issue. The majority agreed to support, but there are still opinions that Red Velvet’s fans are overreacting, deliberately demanding too much. Many netizens also noticed that this was the third time CRAVITY and Starship were involved in the accusations of plagiarising SM idols, from the MV concept, choreography to the fandom name this time.
Here are some comments from netizens:
To be honest, we use “Luvie” more than “Reveluv” and cherish it… Please change your fandom name…..
EXO-L’s affectionate name is “Elie”. If someone named their fandom “Elie” you know there will be a war for sure
What is Starship doing with SM? They copied EXO and now Red Velvet.. They are a mess
But it’s an affectionate name and it’s not Red Velvet’s official fandom name… The fandom culture is really weird.
