Netizens Flame Bang Si Hyuk For Supposed Mediaplay

Recently, HYBE founder and chairperson Bang Si Hyuk had a drastic change in his appearance after losing a significant amount of weight.

Since then, he has been a hot topic on online forums, with many either appreciating or speculating about his quick transformation.

One of his latest posts on Instagram, where he stood among the members of TXT, has sparked yet another discussion about Bang’s weight loss.

Initially, fans were angered when a particular news publication compared Bang to the TXT members, as they felt it was unnecessary and exaggerated. But now, netizens are suspecting that there might be mediaplay at work, given the sheer number of articles about this topic that have been pushed out around the same time.

In a viral post on Instiz, a user compiled multiple headlines by different Korean news outlets reporting on Bang Si Hyuk’s weight loss, and almost all of them had a similar framing, either comparing him to TXT or implying that he was at par with idol-like visuals.

• “Bang Si Hyuk stands side-by-side with TXT after weight loss… ‘Majestic’ Force”
• “Bang Si Hyuk, one year after health-related speculations… ‘Shocking’ whereabouts after successful diet”
• “Bang Si Hyuk idol debut rumors? Even TXT ‘shocked’ with his visuals shrunken by half.”
• “Was Bang Si Hyuk’s face always this small… ‘Shocking’ sharp jawline next to TXT”
• “Bang Si Hyuk, who slimmed down, found at an idol concert…Standing next to the members…”
• “Bang Si Hyuk, confident with face shrunken by half… ‘Close bond’ with TXT members…”

• “Bang Si Hyuk, same face size as an idol…He’s unrecognizable from so much weight loss…”
• “Bang Si Hyuk, the master of transformation”
• “Bang Si Hyuk’s new transformation, the rising style icon of K-Pop”
• “Bang Si Hyuk half size down, you’d believe it even if someone called him a TXT member…Completely different after weight loss”
• “Is that really Bang Si Hyuk? We thought he was an idol…Completely successful diet”

With so many identical articles about Bang’s weight loss, netizens became suspicious that all of them were paid for by him or his company and ridiculed the whole incident.

• “This is f*cking funny. Why is he like this?”
• “But he really lost a lot of weight. It’s wow-worthy if it’s to that extent.”
• “Ugh, the article headlines are really p*ssing me off.”

• “What a waste of money to mediaplay like this.”
• “How many articles are they going to put out for his diet? Even idols don’t do mediaplay to that extent.”