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Mnet's show, Street Man Fighter, sparked controversy after viewers noted that it repeatedly referred to one of its dance crews as 'BIIB' (pronounced BtoB). The acronym, which is being used for the dance crew BANK2BROTHERS, came under fire because of its similarity with the K-pop group BTOB.
Fans pointed out that the crew would be known as 'BtoB', which is how its name was written during voting, thereby making it similar to that of the K-pop group. Later, fans also noticed that the dance crew’s logo resembled the one that the K-pop group had used in their past promotions.
All these similarities led to the BTOB fandom trending #CUBEPROTECTBTOB on social media and demanding an apology from Mnet.
Mnet confirmed the competing dance crew for the show on July 6, 2022. The crew also had their own promotional suit profile video. As soon as the profiles came out, viewers noticed similarities with BTOB, going on to speculate that Mnet had done it on purpose to misguide people into thinking the crew was an idol group.
Fans speculate that BTOB’s name is deliberately being used in the show, protects the group's identity
According to fans, the idol group’s agency Cube Entertainment has trademarked 'BIIB' under the group’s name with several other keywords related to them, thereby making Mnet's use a trademark infringement.
In response, fans trended the #CUBEPROTECTBTOB hashtag as they called upon Cube Entertainment to protect the group and take immediate action against the unauthorised usage. They also demanded an apology from Mnet.
What are the other similarities between Mnet's dance crew and the K-pop group?
Apart from the logo and the acronym, fans also noted that the dance crew's catchphrase, "Born To Be Hip" was similar to the meaning of BTOB, which stands for:
“Born to Beat."
Furthermore, many spotted a peculiarity in the YouTube videos that Mnet had posted for the show. All the dance crews confirmed for the show had videos with their full Korean names. The only exception was BANK2BROTHERS, who instead used the acronym similar to the K-pop group's name.
Some viewers also said that, owing to the similarity in names, they had initially thought it was an idol group that was participating on the show.
How did Cube Entertainment respond to the infringement?
In response to the outrage on social media, Cube Entertainment resolved the issue on July 8, 2022, and shared an official statement about it on the group's Twitter handle:
In the statement, the agency revealed that after addressing the issue with the Mnet team, the latter had agreed to only use the full name of the dance crew henceforth, and also take adequate steps to change the logo and catchphrase which came under fire.
Following the statement from the group's agency, fans are now relieved that the group's name is protected.
