A fifth generation girl group is being criticized for allegedly using Aespa’s Karina for marketing

The controversial fifth generation girl group QWER was criticized for its questionable marketing strategy.

On December 9th a viral post on the Korean forum Nate Pan criticized QWER’s “viral marketing tactic” for the alleged use aespa member Karina to attract attention. The OP (original poster) compiled various headlines and articles published on both Korean media platforms and community sites, which compared Karina to member QWER Fuck.

The headlines were largely of three different varieties: one that simply placed Karina and Chodan in the same frame, one that compared the beauty of the two idols, and finally, one that openly mentioned Chodan as the one who had defeated the aespa member in terms of beauty.

Title 1: “Karina and next to her, Chodan.”

Title 2: “Karina and two fucking shots.”

Title: “Karina vs. Chodan: Who Won?”

Title 1: “Chodan won over Karina.”

Title 2: “Chodan, who does not bow before Karina.”

Title 3: “Chodan from QWER, who defeated all girl groups with his face.”

In addition to these posts, the OP also compiled several copied-and-pasted comments under community posts that unnecessarily insulted Karina and presented Chodan as her younger, better counterpart.

The post has garnered over 120,000 views as of this writing, with most netizens criticizing QWER’s marketing strategy.

• “They used a similar method during the “Fake Idol” era. They made it look like feminists were terrorizing the company and making men beat them. But it turned out that it was just viral marketing. Ugh, that’s why they get criticized.”
• “‘That company’ is QWER friendly haha.”
• “Their comparison is also a big insult to Karina, LOL. Aespa fans = commoners, QWER fans = discarded incels.
• “Logically, if the fans got involved, Karina would only suffer. It’s obviously viral marketing, haha. It’s to increase mentions of Chodan.

This is not the first time QWER’s marketing strategy has been questioned by netizens. Previously, the group became a hot topic after their album poster was defaced at a shopping mall right before their comeback. Read more here.