Brands remove ads of actor Kim Seon-ho after allegations from ex-girlfriend

Several brands in Indonesia and South Korea have taken down endorsement ads featuring South Korean actor Kim Seon-ho following allegations that he had pressured his ex-girlfriend to terminate her pregnancy when they were still dating.

This came after a post surfaced on the online community website Nate Pann where the author claimed to have dated "actor K", reported South Korean English-language newspaper The Korea Herald. She then detailed the events of how the actor had pressured her into aborting their child and later acted aggressively towards her, eventually leaving her.

After the post went viral on online communities, a growing number of people and media outlets speculated that Actor K referred to Kim, The Korea Herald said. While Kim and his agency, Salt Entertainment, only confirmed actor K to be Kim, and the allegations, three days later, brands such as Indonesian stock trading platform Ajaib, Domino’s Pizza Korea, Canon Korea and Food Bucket took down posts of Kim from their social media images and posts, The Korea Herald said.

A quick search by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE revealed that beauty brand Everwhite Indonesia has not taken down any of its posts featuring Kim, and has reached out for comment. Meanwhile, Tempo previously reported that Ajaib had appointed Kim as its brand ambassador in December last year. A check by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE showed that Ajaib had taken down its posts featuring the actor, and its YouTube video of the actor has been unlisted, though it remains available via search. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has also reached out to Ajaib for comment.

According to South Korean sports and entertainment newspaper The Sports Chosun, the posts associated with Kim were taken down and the contracts with him were terminated even before an official confirmation due to the actor's lack of tact. One brand spokesperson said that it was unable to get in touch with Kim or the agency following the allegations, and was confused as to why they were being ghosted, The Sports Chosun said but did not specify the brand. The spokesperson added that they would not have cut ties with him if he had been more upfront. Meanwhile, another spokesperson said that "Kim's reputation isn’t as important as his reliability", and had no choice but to reconsider their contract seeing how he handled the crisis with zero professionalism and maturity, The Sports Chosun reported.

According to The Sport Chosun, models and brand ambassadors typically pay penalties worth two to three times the advertising cost if they cause social scandals that adversely affects the brand's image. Seeing as Class A celebrities such as Kim receive about KR300 million won to KR1 billion won per contract, Kim may end up owing penalties of KR3 billion won per contract in the worst-case scenario, The Sports Chosun added.

Following Kim's controversy, producers will also remove the actor from ongoing and scheduled productions, including variety show 2 Days & 1 Night and a film titled 2 O'Clock Date, The Straits Times reported. According to ST, an official from public broadcaster KBS said that the filmed scenes of Kim in the variety show will be edited out for viewers.

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