NewJeans’ Ditto MV director addresses the Infinite Challenge plagiarism comments, leaves fans confused

Shin Woo-suk, the director of NewJeans' comeback pre-release single Ditto, has denied the plagiarizing comments the song has received.

ADOR’s rookie girl group made a thrilling comeback with Ditto a few days ago on December 19. It is a pre-release single of their upcoming album, OMG, scheduled for release in January 2023.

Since the Ditto group’s concept has been Y2K from the beginning, the recent music video also falls into the same aesthetic. However, some netizens claimed that it was plagiarized from Infinite Challenge, a classic South Korean variety show that ran from 2005 to 2018.

Ditto director Shin Woo-suk addressed the issue on his Instagram story. He said:

“I heard that NewJeans’s ‘Ditto’ music video was accused of plagiarizing Infinite Challenge. I would like to take this opportunity to state that it isn’t plagiarism. If there are similarities, please understand they are due to being of the (two projects) being of the same genre.”

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NewJeans’ Ditto music video director posts an Instagram story about plagiarism, says it was just a joke

The similarities that fans found between NewJeans' Ditto and Infinite Challenge (Image via theqoo)

On December 19, NewJeans made their much-anticipated comeback with Ditto. The pre-release single gave fans two music videos, featuring young actors Park Ji-hu and Choi Hyun-wook playing a key role in the storyline.

The music videos received ample attention, but they also got tangled in a plagiarism controversy. On South Korean site theqoo, netizens jokingly called out the similarities between the music video’s direction and Infinite Challenge.

K-netizens' reactions on the theqoo post (Image via Koreaboo)

In Shin Woo-suk's second story, he added that he had received many supportive messages but he was only joking. He wrote:

“I'm just kidding, but I'm having a lot of DMs supporting me, so it's hard to reply."

In the third story, he posted a screenshot of a local South Korean outlet’s news on the same, and reiterated that his statement was just a joke.

However, the series of Instagram stories left fans bewildered as they were unsure if the director was actually joking or serious.

Some fans believed that the plagiarism issues probably went too far, while others mentioned that it was all in jest. Take a look at some of the fans’ comments below:

Meanwhile, NewJeans' Ditto climbed to the No. 1 spot in just six hours of its release on major South Korean music charts such as MelOn, Bugs, and Genie.