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Virtual model for the Korea Tourism Organization, which cost $500,000 to produce, under fire for resembling Red Velvet's Irene

AKP STAFF
Posted by Susan-Han Wednesday, October 19, 2022

A virtual influencer and promotion model, named Lizzie Yeo, is under fire for her close resemblance to Red Velvet's Irene

The virtual character was created by the Korea Tourism Organization to act its honorary ambassador, and cost approximately 800 million KRW (~ $557,000 USD) to produce. After starring in various promotional content for Korean tourism since July, Lizzie Yeo began to garner attention for her odd resemblance to well-known female celebrities, including Irene and singer/actress Kwon Nara

The character even received criticism from the Culture, Sports, and Tourism Committee for this controversy, as one committee member observed while comparing a photo of Lizzie Yeo side by side with Irene, "The one on the left side is Yeo Lizzie, and the one on the right side is Irene. They look the same. There are serious concerns over one's portrait rights here."

The committee also claimed, "The character resembles Irene and Kwon Nara too closely. The character was apparently created with features which were deemed as popular among the MZ generations, but this virtual character is creating unrealistic expectations about beauty."

Furthermore, Lizzie Yeo also faced accusations of fabricating her SNS followers. The Korea Tourism Organization admitted that SNS followers were purchased through a marketing platform, and since, 8,000 followers have been deleted from Lizzie Yeo's SNS.

  1. Irene
65 115,280 Share 78% Upvoted
 
Betula
Betula10,526 pts Wednesday, October 19, 2022 8
Wednesday, October 19, 2022

I laughed so hard at this. In a country with so many beautiful people, you're going to spend unholy sums of money CGI designing a copycat of a real person, plus paying even more for fake followers, rather than just... hiring a human spokesperson?! People are crazy.

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ilyria101_nuest
ilyria101_nuest835 pts Wednesday, October 19, 2022 1
Wednesday, October 19, 2022

bruh that's literally Irene ...

54 (+57 / -3)
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