Luxury brand apologizes after employee leaks 'unauthorized' photos of SEVENTEEN's Mingyu
Luxury brand L’Occitane Korea apologized after one of its employees posted “unauthorized” photos of SEVENTEEN’s Kim Mingyu from a brand shoot on their personal social media account.
Detailing the incident, K-media outlet Koreaboo reported that the brand’s employee shared several of Mingyu’s shoot photos, including ones with “more exposure.”
“Mingyu, who took up most of my photo album…I couldn’t erase it because I was nervous, but I guess I should start organizing them now,” the poster wrote in the caption, as per Koreaboo.
The post immediately drew flak from the fans, with most of them calling for a safe environment and utmost protection for the K-pop idol.
Following the backlash, L’Occitane Korea released a statement apologizing to Mingyu and the fans.
“We sincerely apologize for the recent incident involving the unauthorized release of photos from the L‘Occitane Asia Ambassador campaign, which were improperly distributed on the personal social media account of one of our employees. We acknowledge that there is no excuse for this breach and fully accept responsibility for what has occurred,” the statement read.
The brand stressed that they take the matter with “utmost seriousness,” and that they deeply “regret the distress caused to the artist and all the fans.”
“We extend our deepest apologies to them,” they continued.
They added that the said employee has been “completely removed from all duties” and is now suspended.
As part of their response, the brand said they would do a comprehensive and regular training program for all their employees.
“This program will emphasize the critical importance of respecting the copyrights, portrait rights, publicity rights, and privacy of our brand ambassador,” they wrote.
“We will ensure that every employee thoroughly understands and adheres to these principles, and we will approach this process with a strong sense of responsibility."
Mingyu became the brand’s ambassador in May. He is among the members of the hit K-pop boy group SEVENTEEN consisting of Vernon, Hoshi, DK, Seungkwan, The8, Dino, Joshua, S.Coups, Woozi, Junhui, Jeonghan, and Wonwoo.
Some of their hit songs include Very Nice, Super, Rock with You, HOT, and _WORLD, among others. They last visited the Philippines in January as part of their Follow tour.