NCT's collaboration with Starbucks Korea recently sparked controversy. NCTzen (NCT fandom) even sent a protest truck to boycott the collaboration. Quoting from KpopStarz June 3, 2024, a post entitled "International NCT fans sent protest trucks in front of Starbucks" was shared by the online community forum TheQoo.
In the post, the uploader shared a photo of a protest truck in front of a Starbucks branch in South Korea. They also included tweets from the X (formerly Twitter) NCTzen Humanity & Help Indonesia account. In their tweet, they stated that they do not want NCT or any SM Entertainment artists to promote with Starbucks.
They added that they also do not want the group to collaborate with any company that funds genocide in Palestine. Currently, people are boycotting Starbucks because of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. Despite not funding IOF and having no locations in Israel, Starbucks has come under fire for attempting to sue unions that express support for Palestine.
Because of this, NCTzens were furious after finding out that their idols were collaborating with Starbucks. The NCT members also seem to be against the collaboration. Taeyong and Renjun shared an Instagram story allegedly encouraging fans to boycott Starbucks.
Although the protest truck received a lot of praise from international NCTzens, Korean netizens' responses tended to be cynical. They called the fans crazy. They considered this behavior stupid and criticized international fans for their activism. Korean netizens stated that the protest truck was not even sent to Starbucks' main headquarters in South Korea.
Instead, the product was shipped to a Starbucks outlet in Cheongdam, where workers likely had no say in the collaboration. Many questioned why they didn't send the protest truck to the SM Entertainment building or Starbucks headquarters.
Many believe they should limit their boycott of Starbucks to America alone. Korean netizens believe that international fans' actions are detrimental to NCT's marketability to brands in South Korea and they are actually harming NCT's image by doing so. What do you think?
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