PLEDIS Apologizes For SEVENTEEN Comeback Teaser Featuring Great Wall Of China

Sep 24, 2023

PLEDIS Entertainment has issued a formal apology regarding one of SEVENTEEN’s comeback teasers.

As SEVENTEEN gears up for their comeback with their new mini album “SEVENTEENTH HEAVEN,” the group has been releasing a series of teaser videos featuring various cities all over the world.

Each city’s teaser shows the smiling chamomile flowers from SEVENTEEN’s album artwork for “SEVENTEENTH HEAVEN” floating around a famous landmark from that city: in the Paris teaser, the flowers are shown floating on the Seine River, while in the New York teaser, the flowers bounce up and down the streets of Times Square.

The Beijing teaser for “SEVENTEENTH HEAVEN” similarly featured the flowers floating above the Great Wall of China. However, some Chinese fans complained that the use of the Great Wall of China was disrespectful, leading PLEDIS Entertainment to delete the teaser shortly after its release.

On September 24, PLEDIS Entertainment released the following apology:

"Hello.
This is PLEDIS Entertainment.

We are making an announcement regarding the Beijing teaser video for SEVENTEEN’s 11th mini album “SEVENTEENTH HEAVEN.”

On September 23 at 2:14 p.m. in Chinese local time, we released a “SVT RIGHT HERE” Beijing version teaser video as part of our promotional content for SEVENTEEN’s 11th mini album “SEVENTEENTH HEAVEN.”

The Beijing version was produced to show chamomile flowers floating above the Great Wall of China, a cultural heritage site that represents China, but after the video was released, we received criticism from fans that our understanding and respect of the Great Wall of China had been lacking.

Therefore, we immediately deleted the Beijing version video. We apologize for making the fans uncomfortable, and we will be more careful in the future.

We will make an effort to create content that fans from many different countries, regions, and cultures can all enjoy together."

cr: Soompi