The annual charity event Love Your W of W Korea magazine, introduced as a campaign to raise awareness about breast cancer, is becoming the focus of criticism in Korea, due to activities that are considered far from the original humanitarian goals and disrespect for cancer patients.
According to Dispatch, the Love Your W event has been organized by W Korea since 2006, aiming to spread the message of preventing and screening for breast cancer.
Every year, the event brings together dozens, hundreds of famous people who are actors, singers, TV stars and businessmen to attend.
This year, the famous guests are still as large as usual, with top names such as Lee Min Ho, Lee Joon Hyuk, Lee Jun Ho, Jung Hae In, Lee Young Ae, Byeon Woo Seok, Lee Chae Min, Choo Young Woo, RM, J-Hope, V (BTS)...
However, at this year's event, the audience only saw champagne Moët & Chandon wine, red roses and goods flooded with branded costumes, while the pink ice cream symbol - representing the global breast cancer movement - completely disappeared.
In addition, the fact that stars drink alcohol at a cancer event is also controversial, while WHO has recommended not drinking alcohol as the best cancer treatment.
According to Dispatch's investigation, artists attending this event do not receive remuneration every year and also pay for makeup and hair. They believe that this is a charity activity.
But W Korea took advantage of celebrities under the "charity" card trick. Instead, this magazine received tens of millions of won from nearly 30 luxury brands such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Prada, Fendi...
In addition to providing fashion outfits for stars invited to attend the evening gown, these luxury brands have joined together to donate nearly 1 billion won to this year's event to raise awareness about breast cancer.
Fashion brands donated about 30 million won per brand, while jewelry brands donated about 5 million won. Not to mention individual advertising contracts with Dyson and Moët & Chandon.
However, over the past 20 years, W Korea announced that the Love Your W campaign has only raised about 1.1 billion won, an average of less than 50 million won/year. They claim to have supported breast cancer screening for about 500 people, but the specific details about how to use the donation have not been disclosed.
This has led to doubts about the transparency of the Love Your W charity campaign.
Dispatch said that a famous actress (later revealed to be Park Bo Young) was blocked from getting on the red carpet at last year's event because she did not wear socks sponsored by the V brand.
Finally, W Korea posted a photo of Park Bo Young only taking the upper body, sparking controversy over the overcommercialization of a charity fundraising campaign.
In addition, at this year's event, Jay Park performed an inappropriate song that mentioned a woman's body. The image used in the performance of the group Allday Project was criticized as too suggestive.
On social media, W Korea posted a series of interview clips and challenge videos unrelated to breast cancer, but still attached the hashtag " Campaign to raise awareness of breast cancer" in a formal way.
In the case of Karina (aespa) being asked to film a dance video for the song "Sugar on my tongue" with a sexy lyrics, the representative of the management company said that they were not allowed to participate in the event, and the artist was asked to film a video without "no announcement".
