Specifically, a L'Occitane employee posted photos of Mingyu ( Seventeen ) during a photoshoot for the brand with the caption: "Mingyu took up most of my photo album... I can't delete them because I'm so nervous. I guess I should start organizing them now."
Notably, these are close-up photos of the male idol half-naked.
Seventeen fans then grayed out the photos that revealed parts of Mingyu's body and condemned the actions of the aforementioned staff.
They believe that Mingyu's privacy is being seriously violated, and ask the brand to ensure the safety of the studio for its artists and models.
After the controversy erupted, L'Occitane Korea posted an apology on its official account.
The brand stated: “We sincerely apologize for the recent incident involving one of our employees illegally releasing photos from the L'Occitane Asia Ambassador campaign on his personal social media account.
We admit that there is no excuse for this violation and take full responsibility for what happened.
We take this matter extremely seriously, and we deeply regret the impact it has caused to the artist and all of his fans. We would like to extend our deepest apologies to them.”
L'Occitane Korea also said that the employee involved in the incident has been completely removed from all duties and disciplinary action will be taken immediately.
The brand also promised to implement comprehensive and regular training for all employees, to prevent such incidents from happening in the future. At the same time, it ensures to respect the copyright, portrait rights, publicity rights and privacy of brand ambassadors.
