Fans Boycotting LOONA’s Upcoming Comeback Against BlockBerry Creative Are Already Seeing Successful Results
As most K-Pop fans are well-aware by now, Chuu was recently removed from LOONA on November 25, with the reason given by BlockBerry Creative to be due to “verbal abuse and poor behavior towards staff”. In the days since then, her fellow members and even those outside of the K-Pop industry that have worked with Chuu have spoken up in support of her, leading fans to suspect something is off about the sudden removal.
A few days later, on November 29, nine members of LOONA were reported to have filed an injunction to suspend their exclusive contracts with BlockBerry Creative, due to trust between the agency and the members being ruined. However, the label later stated that the rumors were not true.
Despite their statement, though, the members who allegedly filed the injunction have been notably silent on social media, with only Hyunjin and ViVi — the two members not included in the injunction rumors — active this month.
[#현진 / #HyunJin] 대한민국 가자❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥#이달의소녀 #LOONA pic.twitter.com/V9Nj1oLy3c
— 이달의 소녀(LOOΠΔ) (@loonatheworld) December 2, 2022
[#ViVi] 함께 보내줘서 고마워유 오빛아❤️#이달의소녀 #LOONA pic.twitter.com/eza32JhVeT
— 이달의 소녀(LOOΠΔ) (@loonatheworld) December 9, 2022
And despite all of the issues going on with the group and BlockBerry Creative recently, the label announced a few days ago that LOONA would be having a comeback in January 2023.
LOOΠΔ
The Origin Album [0]“날 빈틈없이 채운 달빛”
2023.01.03 TUE 6PM (KST) #이달의소녀 #LOONA#Zero #FREESM pic.twitter.com/rOzgjVzA9c
— 이달의 소녀(LOOΠΔ) (@loonatheworld) December 14, 2022
On December 5, fanclub LOONA Union posted an open letter to BlockBerry Creative demanding a formal explanation regarding all of the ongoing concerning allegations with the company and their treatment of LOONA. They gave the label until the end of December 7 to reply, at which point they would start a boycott if left unanswered.
— ِ (@mameharas) December 11, 2022
And since the label didn’t respond, the boycott was formally announced. With the boycott, fans of LOONA are encouraged not to purchase albums, merchandise, concert tickets, or anything else that would give money to the label. This also included not streaming or playing any of the group’s songs and videos on any platform, as well as other actions that would positively impact BlockBerry Creative.
At stated in the letter, the boycott will continue “until the accusatory statements against Chuu are retracted, an apology is made with regards to past mistreatment, and LOONA members are given the option to terminate their contract”.
The boycott already seems to be taking effect, based on pre-order sales numbers that have begun being reported for the group’s new album, The Origin Album: 0. Pre-orders just became available earlier today, and popular distributor KTown4U has shown a massive decrease in first-day pre-order sales compared to their last album release.
Their last album, Flip That, released earlier this year sold around 3,400 copies during the first day of pre-orders. In comparison, the results for the first-day pre-orders for The Origin Album: 0 is in the low dozens.
The Loona comeback boycott seems to be incredibly effective from kpopthoughts
While these numbers could change in the future, it’s already a promising start to the boycott, and fans on Reddit have a lot to say in regard to the entire ordeal.
There is even a very extensive list of K-Pop stores that are outright not selling the upcoming album at all.
Overall, the LOONA fandom seems to be overwhelmingly in support of the boycott and the members of the group, and even non-fans are showing solidarity.
Going forward, we only wish the best for the members of LOONA, and we hope that the ongoing situations resolve themselves soon without more stress and confusion for the idols involved.
