From TWICE to LE SSERAFIM to ITZY to J-hope, each album release announcement is riddled with a boycott campaign for all sorts of reasons.
From drinking a certain coffee brand to being seen with certain people who have been with other questionable people, there’s not a shortage of reasons to cancel kpop idols.
While we have to respect that there may be some people who are truly and sincerely invested and concerned about the causes and issues they fight for, we also must be aware that many of these people advocating for these causes are either getting paid to do so or doing it to destroy other people or both.
Much as it pains me to admit, marketing and PR have some dirty tricks in their pockets and there are a lot of people who won’t hesitate using those tricks to destroy others. So, as fans and as consumers, we also need to be aware so we don’t turn into pawns being manipulated to serve other people’s agenda.
Let us first go through the different dirty marketing and PR strategies and tactics used by fans and agencies to malign kpop idols and then talk about what you can do to avoid them or even identify those who sincerely believe in the cause or those who are doing it for the wrong reasons.
ASTROTURFING
Astroturfing is a deceptive tactic that involves creating the illusion of grassroots support or genuine public opinion to manipulate people’s perceptions and influence their decision-making. This is very common in Kpop. Negative voices and opinions are amplified, creating hte illusion that something is popular among the public even when they are nothing but a loud minority.
Soojin and Garam’s bullying scandal were not met with as much disdain as publications made it appear to be considering what happened to her was pretty common in Korea.
Even the hate that ILLIT is getting online isn’t as bad as it may seem.
Creating fake grassroots movements
One astroturfing tactic used in smear campaigns is the creation of fake grassroots movements. In these schemes, online communities are fabricated or manipulated to support an issue to create an illusion of numbers. Influencers are paid or public demonstrations, aka sending trucks, are done to make it appear there is widespread support or opposition.
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MORAL PANIC
Inducing moral panic or using some sort of moral blackmail is nothing new but the pandemic turned this tactic into a weapon of mass destruction.
Moral panic is when you induce a false or exaggerated perception that some behavior or group of people is dangerously deviant and poses a threat to society’s values and interests. It was more commonly used by political groups in order to paint the opposition as an immoral incapable leader.
Nowadays, any kind of moral, political, ideological, and even personal issue is being used as moral or emotional blackmail materials by labeling people who are for or against issues as immoral, deviants and criminals and anyone who supports or anyone who does ‘NOT’ condemn them is just as guilty.
Some may call it guilt trip, false labeling, moral blackmail or just plain manipulation.
X is constantly trending on keywords related to boycotts. Letters are being sent to management companies to terminate partnerships with brands, fire people in their company or fire certain artists.
As soon as J-hope announced his next album, ‘Hope On The Street’, the first order of business was to research every producer and songwriter Jhope worked with and look for any association to anything people don’t agree with. Hot tip: you will always find the association you are looking for, regardless which side you are fighting for.
TWICE and LE SSERAFIM experienced the same thing in their recently released albums. Plans are rolling out for Baby Monsters, Stray Kids and others.
Some of these people joining in on these causes are truly passionate about the cause but there are more who are merely virtue signaling, enjoying the influence they exercise on people, doing it to malign other people or are being paid to do so.
How do you know the difference? We will discuss that later.
ILLUSION OF TRUTH
“Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.” That is a law of propaganda often attributed to the Nazi Joseph Goebbels. Among psychologists something like this is known as the “illusion of truth” effect.
The idea is repetition. If you reinforce something over and over again, you start to believe it even if it goes against the most fundamental truth. This strategy was reinforced by Hitler. In his 1925 autobiographical manifesto. He observed that most people are only comfortable telling small lies. Because of this, Hitler believes that, when something big is claimed, we tend to believe it because we ourselves can’t imagine that someone would be telling such a big lie.
In the manifesto, he said that It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation.
There are many kpop idols who have benefited or maligned from the illusion of reality. TWICE, for example, has a reputation for being bad at live singing. Even if you show people hundreds of live performances where they sound just fine, they will still insist they are either lip synching or they are actually bad.
The same thing is true for BTS’s Jimin. A few people started the narrative of him singing off key in a music show and everyone went on with it. Even if the material evidence proves otherwise.
ITZY is often called the flop group even though they sold out their recent tour.
Illusion of reality convinces you that the truth you see, hear, feel or touch are not true just by repeating it and by saying something so ridiculously untrue that it’s hard to believe anyone would even dare to say it.
BLACK PROPAGANDA
A campaign that pretends it originates from the target it actually intends to defame or discredit.
One of the oldest recorded black propaganda was US Army leaflets that Japan air-dropped over the Philippines during WW2 as the Americans were moving in to liberate the islands from Japanese occupation. They appeared to be pamphlets published by the US Army, warning their own troops that Filipino women were promiscuous and disease-ridden and to use protection when soliciting them for cheap prostitution. Japan’s goal here was to make the Filipinos think that the Americans looked down on them and intended to sexually exploit their women.
The most blatant use of this is in Attrakt vs Fifty Fifty and the Givers. The Givers were alleged to have released documents proving the mistreatment of Fifty Fifty but it turned out the documents were made up.
DEFAMATION
Defamation is probably the most used tactic in kpop. It overlaps with other concepts. It involves spreading false information or making baseless accusations to tarnish the reputation of a competitor.
False accusations
False accusation is one tactic used. It involves fabricating stories and presenting them as facts. Soojin, formerly of IDLE left the group after bullying allegations were made against her. They were later proven to be false. Shinee’s Onew was falsely accused by a woman of sexually assaulting her in a club.
Rumors and gossip
Some simply spread rumors. BTS was and is still being accused of sajaegi. Numerous idols have been rumored to have been dating another celebrity or for having sponsors. There is nasty gossip too. Some idols are known for having terrible body odor. Some idols are reputed to be disrespectful or bullies.
Misrepresentation of facts
Some also misrepresent facts. This can take various forms including selectively highlighting negative aspects of a competitor’s performance, editing video or photos, deliberately misstating their achievements, or deliberately presenting information out of context.
Some go into the lengths of editing videos to make them look bad. V or Taehyun was a victim of this early in BTS’s career when his BTS video receiving an award was edited to make it appear as if he was insulting Big Bang by singing “Loser” when BTS got first place in a music show.
During one of TWICE’s concerts, Nayeon ranked herself first and Jeongyeon last. Some news outlets then started making false reports that Nayeon was ranking the members based on merchandise sales, which led her to get criticized by netizens. It was later revealed that Nayeon was ranking her preference on Twice’s merch design.
By deliberately distorting information or cherry-picking data, competitors can manipulate the narrative to suit their own agendas.
CHARACTER ATTACK
Character attacks call into question the personal integrity and reputation of individuals associated with the targeted idol
Moral Question
Character attacks often involve personal insults aimed at key figures within a competitor’s organization. Malicious competitors may resort to name-calling, making derogatory statements, or spreading false information about these individuals’ personal lives. By attacking their character, integrity, or competence, they hope to diminish their influence and undermine their abilities.
Past Mistakes
One common character attack tactic is the highlighting of past mistakes. By constantly reminding the public of these mistakes, idols’ supposed pristine reputation is tarnished.
This happened to Kim Garam formerly of LE SSERAFIM. She was accused of bullying. Garam admitted to cursing and engaging in word war but that was enough to get her kicked out of the group and it continues to follow her to this day. Stray Kids’ Hyunjin, especially when Hyunjin takes the spotlight, is constantly called out for a false accusation against him.
Whatever happened in the past will be brought out and always at a time when an idol achieves something good.
HONEY TRAPS
A particularly popular Dark PR practice is the so-called ‘Honey Trapping’. Here, a target person is shadowed or seduced by an attacker in order to put him or her in a compromising situation and to record it for posterity by video, voice or photo recording. This doesn’t have to be sexual. The idea is to lure the idol they want to smear to go to a place or make them do something where they can secretly be recorded. Former member of BigBang, Seungri, was a victim of this. A girl posted a photo of him after she supposedly spent the night with him.
Now that we know some of the DIRTY PR OR MARKETING TACTICS used against idols, the question is how are these rolled out and who are leading these. Is it haters or
TACTICS
Unauthorized Leaks
Unauthorized leaks is one of the most commonly used tactics to achieve the strategy. Secretly recorded videos or voice tapes, internal documents, photos and others are released.
Infiltration
Some actually work for the agency of the idol they want to destroy to find some dirt but the more common approach is fake support. Many pretend to like the group, creating social media accounts to gain a following. And once they develop an influence and find an opportunity, they start creating issues. This is what many X, formerly Twitter, accounts are doing. They are starting to fight for causes and making demands, emotionally or morally blackmailing their followers.
Paid Commenters and Reviewers
This is more common than you think. Many accounts leave negative comments or comments that will reinforce the narrative they want to promote. There are farms in countries where labor is cheap where companies are set up to do specifically this.
Paid Journalists or Media
This is another common practice. There are a lot of journalists and writers who are closely related to certain artists or agencies. They constantly write to amplify the name of the artist who gives them favors.
Bots And Trolls
Competitors involved in smear campaigns may employ automated bots or paid “trolls” to spread false information and manipulate online discussions. With AI, trolls will start sounding more human.
ARE AGENCIES ACTUALLY PAYING FOR THIS?
There are some agencies doing this, yes. It is actually way more common than you think. And there are fans who are devoted enough to do this on their own as well. If they are devoted enough to raise thousands of dollars to mass buy an album, create hundreds of accounts to mass stream a song, organize enough to pay streaming farms to boost youtube views, they are devoted enough to destroy idols they hate.
WHAT CAN FANS DO ABOUT IT?
1- It all boils down to your values and wisdom. What does your value dictate you do? Does your value dictate you participate in the discussion? Or does your value dictate you being discerning on what discussion to participate in?
2- I always look into the reputation of the influencer. To me it is simple, if you become an influencer, you have to show your face and reveal your identity. If you want to influence people, you better be accountable for what you say. If you are anonymous, I’ll skip.
3- When someone is trying to start a movement on global issues, my first question is what has this person done about issues that are within their vicinity. I hate wars. I do not ever want anyone harmed but my home country, the Philippines, are ridden with poverty, high crime rate, malnutrition. Children aren’t getting the education they deserve. Health care sucks. Crimes are not being punished. Women are getting abused. Old people die alone. Corrupion is rampant. I have a shitload of things to do in my own community. I will do something about this first. Anyone who becomes an activist on causes halfway across the world from them but isn’t doing anything about problems closer to home is a hypocrite in my books.
Yes, I understand that the least we can do is speak up but if I have any energy to use in moving people for causes halfway across the world, that will be spent on issues closer to home.
4- Understand the issue on your own. Research both sides of the aisle. Unless you truly understand, you shouldn’t act because the only thing worse than not doing anything is doing something for the wrong reasons.
5- Anytime someone pressures me into doing what they want me to do, I shut them out. I got a lot of messages about Scooter Braun and how I can do more since I live in the US to try and get HYBE to fire him. I said I am not interested and I was blackmailed, cursed at, called names. I am too old to be peer pressured and too tired to be manipulated. I’ve have a lot to do.
