"The Incels’ Pick-Mes": Mountain Dew Under Fire For K-Pop Girl Group Chosen As Their Official Models

Mountain Dew recently released a new flavor of their product, Blue Zero Sugar, on May 22 as an exclusive product in South Korea and as a tie-in with the new movie IF.

In order to promote the new flavor, the company also hired a K-Pop group to help market the product as their official models. However, their choice in models has been getting feedback that they likely didn’t anticipate, though it’s hard to say if it will negatively impact the brand or not.

The K-Pop group that they chose is QWER, a four-member rookie girl group that debuted in October 2023. Though not often discussed in the general international K-Pop fandom, the group has a decent following, and their latest album, Manito, sold over 42,000 units (which is a fair amount for a rookie girl group from a small company).

However, leader Chodon drew negative attention to herself and the rest of the group with some controversial statements she made while she was livestreaming. Though the footage was from before she debuted with QWER, they resurfaced recently and was quick to draw backlash.

In the livestream, Chodon made what many consider “anti-feminist” comments, talking poorly about the women she attended an all-women university with and calling them “crazy b*tches”. People accused her of trying to “please incels” or be a “pick-me girl” with what she said.

Anyways… Uh… I’m not saying this because I am swayed by them, but I want to make things clear. People first told me to hide the fact that I went to a women’s university, but I didn’t because I knew something like this would happen. I’m not (a feminist). I’m just upset that I am being affected (negatively) by those crazy b*tches.

— Chodan

In addition to Chodon’s controversy, others have commented on the girls’ appearance in the Mountain Dew ads, claiming that they look like AI models rather than real ones.