The Marketing Bestie Podcast with zoeunlimited - where did your kpop boy crush go

Episode Date: October 17, 2024

what HAPPENED to Kris Wu and Big Bang? Learn & Grow with me. 💖 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoeunlimited/ 💜 TikTok: http://www.tiktok.com/@zoeunlimited 🪭 All my outfits https://www.shopltk.com/explore/zoeunlimited 👩🏻‍💻 LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/zoeunlimited 🛒 Essentials https://www.amazon.com/shop/zoeunlimited 📧 Business inquiries: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The other day it was raining in LA, a rare occasion. And it reminded me of one of my favorite songs you listened to in the ring during middle school. And it was Thunder by Exo. And that brought back so many memories. Similar to the craze I had for BTS in high school and in college, or what the girlies are raving about nowadays. I think TXT, straight kids, 17. Exo and Big Bang were the loves of my life at the time.

And I was getting judged super hard by a handful of people including my parents, my guy friends, and I guess that's it, my parents and my guy friends. I think my parents were just mainly concerned whether the parisocial relationship I had was healthy or not, which I will talk about. And honestly, the middle school dudes were probably just jealous of. this fantasized and packaged male romantic interests for young girls that they have absolutely no way to compare to and is unrealistic to compare to, but it just dawned on me. I haven't been following up with what's going on with my boy crushes for ages, and since you clicked in, you probably have a similar experience, whether with the same group, same person, or not. At some point, we broke up with our biggest crushes that we swore with,

Mary. Did they do something so terribly unforgiving to be erased from the internet and our minds? Well, the iconic hotties we will talk about today ring no unfamiliarity to drama and news. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Upgrade your business with Shopify, home of the number one checkout on the planet. Shop pay boosts conversions up to 50%. Meaning fewer cards going abandoned and more sales going cha-ching. So if you're into growing your business, Get a commerce platform that's ready to sell wherever your customers are.

Visit Shopify.com to upgrade your selling today. The ones who went from some of the hottest celebrities in Asia to, I don't know, we'll find out. Exo's Chris Wu and Big Bang, which IG completely removed from their website. If you think this video is only about Chris Wu and Big Bang, you're in for a treat because we will also go into the dark, dark side of cancel culture, as well as the ugly side of how not just K-pop, but global entertainment is a use and abuse consumeristic industry that both you and I are guilty of partaking as the consumers.

But don't cry yet. We're about to find out what really happened to our boy crushes, and where are they now? RBC Training Ground has discovered potential in over 20,000 Canadian athletes and counting. Your story could be next. If you've got the drive, they'll help you find your path to the Olympics. Let's see what you've got. Sign up for free at rbc trainingground.ca.

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Plans start at just $12 a month. Learn more at talus.com slash online security. No one can prevent all cybercrime or identity theft. Conditions apply. Chris Wu. Before we get into the cancellation of Chris Wu, let's start with the brighter side of his rapid and promising rise. Chris Wiefan was undoubtedly,

the Little Fresh Me, of an era, which is slang that describes the new generation of young male idols with striking handsome features. Debuted with the XO, a 12-member Korean boy band in 2012 by SM Entertainment, the whole group's fame rose quickly with first album XOXO

and breakthrough single growl, selling over 1 million in 2014. As a true fan, of course you need to remember all 12 members. But as a true fan, Of course, you need to pick favorites. Which is the unfortunate picking culture in K-pop. My favorite was John Yom. My 13-year-old butt was so infatuated with his smile, his height, his voice.

I legit thought that was going to marry him. You'll never know. But Chris, on the other hand, was also widely popular. In fact, he was voted by many fans and even group members as the one most attractive to the opposite sex. As a group gained more and more popularity and as Chris's solo debut began gaining attention, he left the group in 2014 to go independent, but his career only began to grow more, including making film debuts in China, holding first places at the Chinese box office,

and began going on reality shows. Making commercials with big brands and rubbing, making commercials with big brands and rubbing shoulders, with Hollywood. The man was rich with a period. According to celebrity net worth, Chris Wu's net worth is estimated to be $9 million, which is BS. Just appearing on one of his reality shows is 80 million R&B, which is 11.2 million US dollars. If you think about all the licensing deals, his acting, his music, and so on, you can do the math. Just to get him on a TV show. The crew took Chris's mom to spend 6 million R&B, or 840,000 US dollars to shop at a mall.

In November 2018, Chris was thriving at the peak of his fame with seven songs landing on the American iTunes Top 10. He later collaborated with Travis Scott and G. Nyko and played NBA All-Star Celebrity Games alongside Drake and Justin Bieber. He allegedly had a collection of 21 exotic supercars and luxury homes in Vancouver, LA and Shanghai. When all he needed and wanted were in his hands, he burned it all to flames. With a secret double life. Seventh,

eight-year, all-of-E-Fey-Fan. Canada, W.E.F. Canadian, was, he said he was a rapper. He was a rapper. Frey Steele,

now just Steele, no Fri. He's at-goe said, if there's this way, if there's this way, the right-goe to get a-sum-seysh.

Wu Ii-van, end-out-she-be-ching. Using his fame, looks and status, Chris has been luring young women for sex for ages and got away with it for years until accusations on social media

began building up. Chris Wu allegedly held parties where he'd pick out girls who caught his eye, then ask his assistants to invite them to his hotel on the pretense. He would lead on multiple of

these girls usually around the ages of 18 and 19 at the same time. I'll read the messages here. I don't think we'll end up together. You're not serious with me. Come to Toronto. And then what? And then whatever works. I think you have better girls waiting for you.

I just don't think we have an ending. And then Chris sent crying emojis. I miss you. My honey booboo. And then goes some right after sleeping with him. AKA being a chat. After pissing off a handful of these girls, some of whom accused Chris of rape. The Court of China ruled in favor of the women as, quote,

Wu violated the will of women and took advantage of the drunkenness of multiple victims to have sexual relations with them. His behavior constituted the crime of rape. Chris was sentenced in 2022 to a total of 13 years, 11 and a half years for rape, and a consecutive 22 months for group lewness. and will be deported from China after completing his sentence. He was subsequently fined $64 million for tax evasion.

On the bright side, it was a big step forward for the legal and cultural attitude towards sexual harassment in China, where many women were reluctant to report sexual harassment because the justice system places a disproportionate burden of proof on the accusers. Between 2018 and 2020, six women filed sex. harassment cases against their harassers in Chinese courts, according to research from Yale Law School by Yatou Wayne. But things don't look as bright for the impacts on fan culture. Before the sentence was out and Chris was just sent to prison, Chris Wu's fan base was so insanely strong that they started a petition to jailbreak him from Chinese prison.

For example, these are group chats of fan girls trying to rescue him. And what the fans are saying in this group is, If I could, I would sacrifice my body to rescue my opah. And there are hundreds, thousands of group chats of girls like these. Which is really painful to see thousands, if not millions of girls feeling crushed, pained, and confused. The type of attachment they have to crisp along with the halo effect of their idol is an invisible drug. It's similar to finding out that someone you loved and trusted all your life. like a parental figure, is a Chad who sexually harasses minors.

Do you painfully accept the truth and see them in a new lens or continue trusting them over everything else floating on the internet? This is both a painful and difficult dilemma, because unlike a parent whom you at least have some actual in-person interactions with, there is no absolute way to tell. Now, the probability that the court, the accusers, and the rest of the canceling internet culture is right is almost 100 for the Chris case. But there is no way to guarantee that in all cases of cancellation. Cancel culture is a double-edged sword where somewhere in the heat of the crowd anger, details can be misinterpreted, magnified, or even twisted. Such as Sujin of girl group G. Idle,

leaving the group and losing contract with their agency due to bullying accusations from past schoolmates. Neon of Girl Group April getting dropped from all advertisements and TV series by being accused of bullying her former groupmate Li Hjong-ju. As fans who honestly are no more than strangers to the idols, there is never a way to know whose side of the story is right. And the consequences, especially the suitable legal actions, seem justified if the wave of online cancel culture has been right about the idol. But what if it isn't? What if a misunderstanding lit by the fire of cancel culture begins the end of innocent career paths? And for the artists who do want to make a redemption, who have learned their lessons, will they ever get a second chance?

Big Bang Fans are recently grappling with the discovery that YG Entertainment has removed everything related to Big Bang from its website. For those of you who might not be familiar with YG, it is one of the hottest entertainment agencies that gave birth to iconic groups like Blackpink, 21, and their biggest hit, Big Bang. From growing up alongside the boom of K-pop, I'd say Big Bang was one of the first boy band groups to reach that level of international influence prior to PTSD. Big Bang debuted in 2006 and had great cultural influence east and west for way over a decade, where Rolling Stone calls K-pop legends.

The first Asian faces in high fashion like Chanel, yet all of a sudden, they seem to be abandoned and erased, literally, from our vision. Did they do something so terribly unforgiving to be banished from the face of the earth? Or is it the nature of entertainment consumerism? That no matter how big the stars are, no matter how attractive and talented they are, Once their talent, youth, vigor, had been extracted to the fullest and consumed, they'll be tossed and forgotten. And yes, I did have the biggest crush on top from Big Bang specifically, who we shall chat about quite a bit as he was unfortunately cancelled, just like the iconic G-Dragon.

T-O-P, a rapper of the group and an actor, began his military service for a bit in 2017, before being caught smoking marijuana. In California or other states and countries where weed is legal, this seems to be no big deal. Because I live in California, whenever I see someone smoking weed, it's like seeing someone smoking a cigarette. But in South Korea and China too, it's not just taboo to smoke marijuana. It's considered degrading. And because Top was in the military when smoking, the army had to kick him out, then sentenced him to 10 months in jail and probation after. Similarly, G-Dragon once crowned the cane of K-pop was under a long scrutiny for drugs,

but have been found not guilty in his ongoing drug case where his tests were negative. The impact on the allegations, however, are hard to measure. The much-anticipated comeback of Big Bang in 2022 did not have the same level of impact in his prime, potentially related to the multiple scandals including Topps drug use, Sunries tax evasion, and speculation of G.D. using drugs. Not long after members such as Topp, then eventually G.D. himself left the group. Quote, I'm truly sorry that I disappointed my fans and the public. I would do my best to make a fresh start and not to make such a mistake again with what I've learned from this lesson. As Top said to the reporters after his sentence. But was he forgiven? Was Big Bang forgiven? Although I don't agree

with everything the idols do. A seriously dangerous trend in enter. but K-pop especially is projecting a very strong image onto the idols who are also humans. And I can say that I am very much guilty of this. Which was probably why that my parents weren't very fond of the idea of me being crazy over boy bands and would not ever give me a single cent to see my future husband's other concerts. We fall in love, not with these humans as they are, but with our own imagined versions of them. We take into account every music video we watch, the films they acted in, the reality shows they joined, their reactions at public events over and over. Forgetting that most of these moments have been scripted, designed, and created to sell us the perfect boys to fall in love with.

But like the ideal natural beauty in film and cinema, the perfect boy love interest also does not exist. Even if we watch their cute and hot moments over and over and over, Those are just glimps of the moments in their lives, even live to the most authentic degree. What is a minute of camera time compared to the rest of 24 hours? The rest of the 10,080 minutes in the week. A reality show with the 24-7 camera is only cut into an hour episode per week. Who are we to say? We know this person.

And when the rest of the 10,080 minutes off-camera version of a multidimensional human shows up, When the human side of someone who also feels the range of human emotions including anger, sadness, annoyance, when the human and idols also make mistakes say the wrong things, do actions they regret, and end up hurting other people just like you and I. Fans feel betrayed and angry. They feel like something is old to them. Some even become anti-fans and join in on the internet bandwagon of bullying, euphemized as cancel culture,

bringing justice back to the world. And some just find newly rising fresh faces to do it all over again. To romanticize the next perfect person to fall in love with. Who won't fail and disappoint this time. Throwing our old crush at the back of our minds like used towel. And the saddest truth is, the entertainment industry knows this, but encourages this. The idols are nothing more than just raw materials to be converted into commodities to sell to young and impressionable fans

who are just discovering their interests for the opposite sex and also spending so much time online that it is so easy to combine the virtual world of idols with their realities as one. And what's the appeal of awkward team boys when you have so many perfect men designed by the industry to choose as your crush? which will likely worsen with the advancement of AI, starting to generate more options in fantasy for people of all ages. So where are the boy crushes now? Well, Chris tried to appeal for his sentence but got rejected. So unless if another appeals go through,

Chris will be 46 when he is released from prison. And not sure if the photos are real, but Chris does not look like he had a smooth time in prison. Okay, side note, Do Me Too, the girl who started the Me Too movement for Chris, is allegedly going to start in an upcoming Chinese web drama, young female genius detective, who's getting a lot of accusations for using this scandal to get into the industry. I am not diving too deep into this, but I think it's two completely separate issues. What Chris did still stands alone as a crime.

As for Do Mezhu, deserving the protection from justice is one thing, but allegedly abusing the attention she's getting for. her victim persona is another. Shout out to my editor, Christy, for pointing out this extra piece of update. Top from Big Bang is allegedly making music again after leaving YG. He seems to really care about SpaceX updates. Go, Elon. Oh, wait, he's signed up.

To go to the moon with SpaceX. Very cool. And is doing some wine business? P-S-P-O-P-V-No. And it's still big into art. I'd say he's driving. and I'm happy to see that. GD from Big Bang just left YG a hot minute ago,

but he seems to have joined a new agency and is beginning to work on music again, which so many fans are happy about and he looks pretty happy, even though it's on Instagram. But overall, not doing too bad either. As an old fan who feels like I know these people way more than I should, I still feel a little joy to know that they're happy and seemingly enjoying what they are doing. And maybe that is the brighter side of fan culture.

So how about you? Where are your childhood celebrity crushes now? Comment below who your childhood favorite celebrity was and what videos you want to see in the future. Like this video for good vibes. And I will see you next week. Frozen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes. Sounds like Ojo time. Let's play.

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