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On Thursday, October 31, famous art director Park Si-young uploaded an Instagram story in light of HYBE's revelation of the Weekly Music Industry Report at the National Assembly State Audit. In an Instagram story, Park Si-young criticized the contents of this internal report.
He also called out the company and its representatives for creating such documents. Though he didn't directly use the label's name in his statement, he used an image of the company's logo.
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As per a NewJeans fan account on X, here's what the statement from Park Si-young's Instagram story read:
"Ugh…I was catching up on the news after a while, and I saw such disgusting stuff. I’ve been working in PR and corporate marketing with big companies for over 20 years, but I’ve never seen such a low-quality, incompetent report. "
He continued to talk about how the trend report, which reportedly contained disrespectful comments and statements about certain K-pop groups and idols, was unacceptable. He wrote:
"This dirty document—calling it a “trend report” is just absurd. Even a brand-new employee sharing this in a group chat would cause issues. Normally, a trend report would look at how to address potential issues and understand the public’s needs, right? "
The art director closed his statement by heavily criticizing the label's representatives for holding a low opinion of minor idols and wrote:
"Here we have incompetent, irresponsible, and malicious people using minors as a resource and dominating an industry where the main audience is also minors. It’s absurd—overinflated egos paired with executives who’ve lost their self-awareness, surrounding themselves with sycophants acting as their lackeys. Disgusting!"
HYBE representatives allegedly exposed for making derogatory comments about minor K-pop idols in their internal report
On October 24, the National Assembly State Audit revealed that an internal report, titled the Weekly Music Industry Report, was shared between the C-level executives.
The National Assembly raised concerns regarding some of the comments and observations in the document that were deemed derogatory and disrespectful towards the K-pop groups and idols in the industry.
The allegations included that the label's representatives commented on underaged K-pop idols' physical appearances and s*x appeal.
When this was brought to the attention of the National Assembly State Audit, the COO of HYBE countered these arguments by stating that the report was simply listing the audience observations as seen online.
He explained that these statements weren't exactly made by the label's representatives but included comments and views of netizens. Additionally, the report was only shared between a small group of high-ranking employees and was not for public sharing.
HYBE also shared a statement on its official website and emphasized that the private report was just a summary of online reactions. The company shared that it would take action against those who "selectively leaked provocative portions of the report to make it appear as though Hybe had criticized the artists."
Kim Tae-ho, the CEO of Belift Lab and COO of HYBE has apologized and admitted that the report was "inappropriate". The company claimed that it would work to "prevent this problem from happening again."
