Fashion magazine W Korea's breast cancer awareness campaign 'Love Your W', which it has hosted, issued a belated apology four days after controversy broke over being a "celebrity drinking party." But innocent Hyeri was caught in the crossfire.
On the 19th W Korea commented on the controversy over the 20th breast cancer awareness campaign charity event "LOVE YOUR W" held on Oct. 15 through its official social media.
W Korea said, "The 'breast cancer awareness campaign: Love Your W' began in 2006 and for 20 years has worked to raise awareness of the importance of early breast cancer screening. However, the event on Oct. 15 was criticized as being inappropriate in its composition and execution compared with the campaign's purpose, and we take this seriously."
The magazine said, "Above all, we deeply apologize for causing discomfort and hurt by failing to carefully consider the positions of breast cancer patients and their families. We are also sorry when we think of the many people who supported the campaign's purpose and participated with good intentions but were made uncomfortable by the controversy."
It added, "Thinking of everyone whose feelings were hurt by this event, we are reflecting on our shortcomings. Over the years the core of this campaign has been the activities of the Korea Breast Health Foundation to raise awareness of the importance of early detection of breast cancer and to support surgery and treatment costs for low-income patients, and the support of those who showed warm interest to sponsor those activities."
W Korea said, "So that their loving sincerity does not lose its shine, we will continue to review and address shortcomings based on the various criticisms and comments. We will take this opportunity to more thoroughly recheck the entire process of planning and executing events."
W Korea also deleted all event-related videos from its official social media. The videos showed many entertainers and influencers holding glasses and enjoying a party, drawing criticism that the footage conflicted with the event's purpose as a breast cancer awareness campaign.
When the videos were deleted, hateful comments poured in on a recent post. The post contained images and video of Hyeri's photoshoot. Because W Korea posted the apology without enabling comments, hateful comments continued on the most recent post featuring Hyeri. Some netizens rushed to that post to leave critical comments instead of posting on the apology, and Hyeri, who had nothing to do with the controversy, became the target of malicious comments.
Netizens flooded Hyeri's post with criticism such as, "Is an apology that closes the comment section sincere?", "Nice apology — hope they get a tax investigation", "Why did they close the comments? If you want proper feedback, open the comments.", "They say they'll accept criticism humbly but closed the comments", and "It's absurd they blocked comments immediately after posting the apology."
The "Love Your W" event was held on Oct. 15 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Jongno-gu, Seoul, and many celebrities and brand representatives attended. However, at the event critics said the party atmosphere and performance-focused program stood out more than the breast cancer awareness message.
[Photo] OSEN DB, W Korea SNS
[OSEN]