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Cosmetic brand Nature Republic’s comment on a brand deal with NCT 127 have landed them in trouble. The nine-member group has been endorsing the brand for nearly two years.
On November 21, 2022, the brand tweeted the results of the group’s latest collaboration event, a signed Polaroid event. In the now-deleted tweet, they said that they expected “tens of thousands of contestants” but only received 1000 entries. They then informed fans that they would announce the winners early.
Nature Republic’s public call out of the 1000 contestants could be perceived as an event failure since they also compared it to the expectations they had in mind. The tweet irritated NCT 127's fanbase, who were quick to criticize it. In response to the backlash, the company issued an apology via Twitter, which was mostly ignored by the fan base.
Nature Republic and NCT 127’s brand endorsement deal seems to be in trouble
NCT 127’s years-long deal with cosmetic brand Nature Republic has irked fans after a small mistake by the latter. Friendly chatter is a new way for brands to communicate with their customers, but it can easily backfire if not carefully considered.
The cosmetics brand started an event for a signed NCT 127 Polaroid on October 21. The event's rules stated that winners would be chosen at random from customers who purchased two Herbology creams. Another important requirement was to tweet with the event's designated hashtag.
However, Nature Republic fell into trouble when they posted their plans of announcing the winners. A month later, on November 21, the brand tweeted that the winners would be announced soon because the event did not go as planned. The brand even stated that they expected "tens of thousands of contestants," but only received a thousand.
The tweet read:
"We will be announcing the winners of the event today! The event closed yesterday, and we had planned to announce the winners in December because we thought there would be tens of thousands of contestants. However, we only had a thousand contestants, so we’ll just announce the winner today. Please tune in."
The tweet immediately riled up NCT 127's fanbase, who commented that it was extremely unprofessional to even discuss the profit or loss of their marketing deals publicly. Many also mentioned that they needed to respect the Sticker singers since they were only buying Nature Republic’s products because of them.
Nature Republic deleted the tweet and posted an apology on their Twitter account. However, fans were enraged as they did not believe it was a genuine apology.
In other news, fans will be able to see NCT 127 interacting with SMROOKIES and Sungchan and Shotaro in the new variety show titled Welcome to NCT Universe.
Meanwhile, the group is nominated for two year-end award shows, the MAMA Awards, and Melon Music Awards. They are nominated for the Netizen Popularity Award at the 2022 MAMA Awards and three categories at the 2022 Melon Music Awards: Best Dance Performance Male Group, Song of the Year, and Artist of the Year.
