BOYNEXTDOOR was recently spotted at the airport holding Apple phones with the iconic logo while taking photos, and they were also seen wearing Apple headsets.
BOYNEXTDOOR's use of Apple products as they departed for Madrid, Spain, on October 11 sparked a debate online.
This stirred controversy because late last year, BOYNEXTDOOR had been invited to Samsung's smartphone launch event. During a Galaxy product photo shoot for a fashion magazine in November, a coffee truck believed to have been sent by Samsung, was spotted on-site.
Samsung further supported the group by inviting BOYNEXTDOOR and 100 of their fans to the Galaxy S23 FE launch event a month later.
Some netizens criticized the group, commenting, "Blatantly switching brands like this would leave sponsors disappointed," and "This could cost them future advertising deals," suggesting the members’ actions were careless.
However, others defended the group, arguing, "It wasn’t an official ad, just a sponsorship, so the backlash doesn’t make sense."
Samsung also clarified that BOYNEXTDOOR were neither official advertising models nor brand ambassadors, adding, "This isn’t a situation that requires an official statement."
Nevertheless, Korean netizens expressed that BOYNEXTDOOR missed an opportunity to stay in Samsung's good graces and might have been chosen as brand ambassadors if they had maintained their loyalty.
Korean netizens commented:
"I heard they weren't advertising models, just given sponsorship. But still, why did they act so carelessly? Samsung drew the line saying it's not even worth issuing a statement. Advertisers are so sensitive about these things—it's unfortunate."
"It's going to be so hard for them to land an advertisement with Samsung now."
"They did this to Samsung, it's going to be hard to get advertisement deals with other brands too now."
"They were so careless."
"Samsung is being wise and saying they're not even worth an official statement."
"Wow lol. It's going to be so hard for this group to make it big."
"They were so dumb. What other brands would want to do advertisements with them now."
"No brand would want them to endorse them if the group is being this careless."
"Just because they show off Apple products doesn't mean Apple would hire them lol."
"I mean, they're not even A-list idols so they were being so careless to do this to Samsung."
"They were not thinking were they?"
"Serves them right. Lol."
"Let's have idols who actually use Samsung to be ambassadors."
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