Seo Kyung-deok, a professor at Seongshin Women's University, said on the 15th (today), “I learned about this after many netizens provided me with information,” and added, “Japanese girl group ‘f5ve’ shared an image of a composite of Ku Hara's photo and a hitsuji through their official SNS."
The post added “IDGAF” (I don't give a fxxx), which means “I don't care at all. In response, fans of KARA in Korea and Japan accused f5ve of misusing Ms. Hala as a marketing tool and defaming the deceased."
When the furor intensified, f5ve immediately deleted the post and apologized, saying that they had failed to recognize the background related to the late Ku Hara in the relevant image. They also claimed that they had been sharing “memes” (Internet trending content) created by fans, and shifted the blame to them.
Professor Seo pointed out, “Above all, Ku Hara has been popular as a K-pop star in Japan, so saying that she ‘failed to be recognized’ is just an excuse."
He also criticized, “No matter how successful K-pop is worldwide, it is absolutely unforgivable to use a photo of a deceased K-pop star, along with the image of his coffin, for publicity purposes."
Professor Seo then threatened, “If you want to be a girl group that aims to enter the global market, you have to follow the basic principles of humanity."
On the other hand, netizens in Japan and Korea who saw the article commented, “This is terrible,” “This is beyond the pale,” “Too rude to the deceased,” “Japanese girl groups are low,” “No sincerity in the apology,” “Everyone makes mistakes, but this time I can only assume it was intentional,” “Noise marketing,” ‘I don't understand how it was just for fun...I don't understand,’ and other angry comments.
2025/04/15 19:55 KST
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