This article is part of our coverage of HYBE vs. ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin. You can read more and view the entire timeline here.
NewJeans‘ parents have claimed through their legal counsel that Bang Si Hyuk would purposely ignore the members’ greetings.
In an exclusive report from Ilgan Sports, they obtained the email sent from ADOR on behalf of the NewJeans’ members’ parents to HYBE, detailing their suggestions and complaints regarding ILLIT‘s debut. The email was drafted by the parents and legal representatives of the NewJeans members.
One concern expressed in the email was that another group debuting under HYBE—revealed to be ILLIT—had many similarities with NewJeans within their concept. This included photography, styling, choreography, and music video aesthetics. They claimed HYBE’s reason for this was to imitate NewJeans for their new girl group and expressed their regret at another agency under the same parent company purposely planning a girl group with the same aesthetic just 20 months after NewJeans’ debut.
The parents also questioned Belift Lab‘s intentions, as they claimed the company did not properly check their content and even mocked NewJeans.
Is there no intention to protect NewJeans and each member’s brand value within HYBE?
The reason why these issues are not groundless is because there have been too many ridiculous situations.
— NewJeans’ parents
The NewJeans’ parents have even claimed that Bang Si Hyuk would purposely ignore the members when they greeted him.
Whenever the NewJeans members encountered Bang Si Hyuk in the company building, we wondered why Bang Si Hyuk would pretend not to recognize the members and turn a blind eye to their greetings. At first, we didn’t believe our children, thinking, ‘Oh, he probably just didn’t recognize you then,’ so we attempted to verify this.
However, since this issue has happened several times, with different dates and locations, even when it was just Bang Si Hyuk and the members, we believe there is no other possibility except recognizing that they are, in fact, NewJeans.
— NewJeans’ parents
The parents continued to explain that accepting someone’s greetings is just basic manners and expressed their anger towards the situation.
Even if you don’t recognize the NewJeans members, it’s just basic manners to accept someone’s greetings when they say hello first. Is that so difficult?
As parents, we were embarrassed and had nothing to say about this childish situation after hearing that it wasn’t just once or twice where they were deliberately avoided, but examples such as they were embarrassed that they were being ignored so they just stood in the elevator with blank expressions or noticing that he was pretending to not see them. They are just middle and high schoolers.
— NewJeans’ parents
ADOR confirmed to media outlet Joy News24 that emails containing the above contents were indeed sent to HYBE.
Throughout this ordeal, NewJeans continues to promote, most recently confirming an appearance on KBS 2 Days & 1 Night. ADOR will hold another meeting on May 31.
