Pledis Entertainment Faces Major Backlash After Allegedly Throwing Shade At BLACKPINK, TWICE, And NCT

Pledis Entertainment is being criticized for seemingly downplaying the accomplisments of artists such as BLACKPINK, NCT, and TWICE.

On January 29, a post titled “Pledis Turning Other Artists’ Concerts Into One-Offs” went viral. In the post, a netizen uploaded an article from Pledis claiming that SEVENTEEN was the only idol group, other than BTS, to have done a stadium tour.

SEVENTEEN met with 700,000 fans in 9 cities over 20 concerts in Seoul, Tokyo, Saitama, Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka, Bangkok, Bulacan, and Macau. The Japanese concerts were held in dome stadiums, and SEVENTEEN proved their ticket power by having performed in stadiums in Macau, Bangkok, and Bulacan. Excluding one-offs, SEVENTEEN is the only K-Pop group, other than BTS, to have done a stadium tour.

—  Pledis

The post’s author then criticized Pledis for downplaying the achievements of other artists who have performed in stadiums as “One-offs.”

I’m not comparing the size of the concerts, but NCT had a stadium tour in Korea and Japan. SM has never called it a “One-off” concert, but Pledis just released an article saying that it was. Pledis’s marketing strategy is really weird. I saw that commenters wrote that BLACKPINK and TWICE have also performed (in stadium tours), but Pledis just made their achievements insignificant.

— Post author

Netizens reacted to the post, with many expressing frustration and anger at Pledis Entertainment. Many fans expressed bewilderment as SEVENTEEN is a very successful group and does not need Pledis to put down other artists to succeed. Many others pointed out Pledis’s desire to claim SEVENTEEN was on the same level as BTS.

• What is wrong with them?
• They don’t need to do all that. We already know SEVENTEEN is great… What’s wrong with them?
• Huh? Why are they doing that when we already know SEVENTEEN is popular?
• I think they want to claim SEVENTEEN is on BTS’s level so bad that they are blind to anything else.
• I raised my eyebrows when they mentioned Saitama, but I’m bewildered by the fact that TWICE isn’t mentioned. I understand they want to brag about SEVENTEEN being on the same level as BTS, but, lol. I think Pledis really benefits from its artists’ image.
• Look how they dismiss the records of female idols, lol. WTF.
• Pledis deserves to be criticized.
• They seem desperate.

What are your thoughts?