In the latest episode of Amazing Saturday, during the game of “Guess The Lyrics,” ILLIT‘s “Magnetic” played—puzzling the panel of hosts and guests on the show.
As the top-trending song played, the captions displayed some of the song’s catchiest lyrics like “This time I want” and “You, you, you, you like it’s magnetic.”
The captions were stylized like ILLIT’s Super Real Me album design—using the quirky font mixing regular and pixelated letters.
Following the episode, K-Pop fans pitched the font used in the Amazing Saturday episode against the one used in NewJeans’ debut album—calling out the undeniable similarities.
Some even pointed out that NewJeans’ fan communication app, Phoning, continues to use the pixelated font…
…making it one of NewJeans’ iconic concepts that should be unique to the group.
A post on theqoo outlining the similarities has since garnered 80K views and 800+ comments about how, for one, “it must have been so obvious to Min Hee Jin that ILLIT was stealing from NewJeans since she designed all of these concepts with love,” as well as how “HYBE is ruining” the careers of both groups involved.
- “Maybe the goal was to become an offbrand NewJeans. Whenever I hear ILLIT now, all I can think about is NewJeans.”
- “What is the deal with this group?! LOL.”
- “So this is what it means to have that secret ‘formula’ stolen.”
- “It’s not a matter of ‘their styles are too similar.’ This goes way beyond that and I totally understand why Min Hee Jin got so pissed and went off on HYBE. I bet ‘super magnetic’ came from ‘super shy,’ too.”
- “Super shy, super shy, like it’s magnetic.”
- “One instance can be argued as coincidental. But multiple instances? I think ILLIT’s promotional team should admit to what happened and take the feedback to fix the mess that has been created. No?”
- “It’s on them for being dubbed the NewJeans subtype.”
- “But, TBH… The off-brand quality speaks for itself. It’s like comparing a luxury good with a Temu or Ali Express one.”
- “I think HYBE looks at idol production as a game. They must think they can create the same thing over and over again and just slap on a “ver. 2.0″ to call it a day. I mean, that’s how things are done in the game industry. They also must think nothing is impossible with money and control over the media. And that might be true, but…”
- “Enough…”
- “Ugh. I don’t even want to see.”
- “Isn’t it more typical of businesses to push to be different somehow? Especially if there’s competition? I don’t understand why they thought this would work. And then to have the style director post a picture of someone’s middle finger up because they don’t like the criticism…”
Meanwhile, other “evidence” of ILLIT’s team taking notes from NewJeans’ promotions have also surfaced. Korean netizens have since dubbed ILLIT the “TaoBao NewJeans” or “NewJeans from Ali Express,” inevitably further damaging the rookie group’s reputation in the entertainment business.
“Taobao NewJeans” — Netizens Spot An “Unmistakable” Way That ILLIT’s Promotional Team Copied NewJeans’
Source: theqoo
