ENHYPEN’s Sunoo Wrongfully Accused Of Promoting McDonald’s Amidst Boycott

By April 2024, it is common knowledge that there is an existing boycott of various brands such as Starbucks and McDonald’s. The boycott is done to support Palestine in the conflict between Palestine and Israel. While many idols seen with products from the brand have already been rightfully held accountable, sometimes fans may be too quick to jump on the hate bandwagon.

ENHYPEN’s Sunoo is one such victim of the internet’s hasty assumptions. On April 24, 2024, he updated Weverse to tell fans about his breakfast choice of the day.

Sunoo’s Weverse. | @enhypenweverse/X

• It’s 8.43am here.
• I ate something like a McMorning.
• ENGENES, fighting for today too.

What started as a casual chat with fans was twisted into something more severe. The term “McMorning” in English and globally is usually used to refer to McDonald’s actual product.

McDonald’s McMorning. | McDonald’s

In Korea, the term is a Konglish term. It is simply a noun, used similarly as “brunch.” It is not used to refer to the actual McDonald’s product, and not necessarily just the breakfast burger. It is used to refer to a brunch-like platter or set. Here are some cooking blogs on NAVER that show examples of what the term means.

| Naver

Making McMorning. Eating brunch at home.

— Blog

| Naver

Cooking Recipe: Super easy recipe :) McMorning Set, Making Brunch

— Blog

Despite this, international netizens without understanding of the term have jumped on Sunoo. In some worse cases, they fail to note that he even included “something like” in his sentence, outright accusing him of consuming McDonald’s.

Thankfully, a Korean set them straight on the term.

Koreans eat Korean food for breakfast
But he is in the U.S., so he had an American breakfast.
In Korea, McMorning style or brunch is typical for such a food name, because there is no proper way to call such a menu in Korean. It's just a noun bro https://t.co/mVjfh9y9ap

— 하고싶은말함 (@malham999) April 23, 2024

“let’s educate them” how about some of u start to educate yourselves about their culture too idk https://t.co/1bXYa9x5vD

— jays fan account (@fatejays) April 23, 2024

In Korea, we call American breakfast "brunch(브런치)", "something like McMorning(맥모닝 같은 거)" or "McMorning style(맥모닝 스타일)"

— 하고싶은말함 (@malham999) April 23, 2024

Although many international audiences often feel the need to “educate idols” on various global cultures and issues, international audiences need to know that it is also a two-way street. Some basic research and learning about Korean culture will definitely go a long way in understanding some of the systems and behaviors behind their favorite groups.