Dozens Of “Snowdrop” Sponsorships Withdraw Their Support Following The Series Premiere

Netizens are keeping track of all the sponsors and boycotting companies.

JTBC‘s highly anticipated series Snowdrop officially released its first two episodes, but the backlash regarding the the K-Drama has been ongoing—which can be seen in the recent sponsorship cancellations.

Poster for “Snowdrop” | JTBC

The production has been receiving continuous criticisms for its alleged history distortion, as it follows the story of the 1987 Democracy Movement that took place in South Korea. As petitions demand for the cancellation of the series, it seems that the backlash has reached the dozens of different sponsorship companies.

Following Snowdrop‘s premiere, Korean netizens began to circulate a list of brands that were featured in the episodes, which has led to boycotts of the companies. On an online community, one particular netizen began to gain viral attention for not only keeping tabs on all of the K-Drama’s sponsorships, but also for updating the public on the ongoing cancellations.

Netizen-created list of all “Snowdrop” featured brands. Red X’s indicate cancelled sponsorships. | theqoo

Following the mass backlash and boycotts, several brands have started to announce their withdrawal positions. According to media reports, P&J Group announced their decision to cancel their support following the premiere of the JTBC series. The company’s CEO personally released a statement through Hankyung that detailed their ultimate decision to cancel their sponsorship.

They alleged that the company was “unaware of the content” when they made the initial investment. However, after seeing the first two episodes of the production, the P&J Group CEO immediately contacted the production company with his desires to remove their sponsorship, as well as their request to have their previous content removed from the already aired episodes.

Still from “Snowdrop” featuring BLACKPINK’s Jisoo | JTBC

This is a massive withdrawal, as P&J Group was one of Snowdrop‘s biggest producer sponsorships. While the K-Drama may still have 2 remaining companies, numerous media sites predict that the series may suffer exponentially following P&J Group’s cancellation.

Still from “Snowdrop” | JTBC

P&J Group was not the only company to withdraw from Snowdrop‘s advertisement lineup. Organic food brand Ssarijai also recently shared their withdrawal requests following the immense backlash they received from Korean netizens.

The food brand posted an official apology on their website, apologizing for “sponsoring the JTBC drama, Snowdrop.” Company representatives shared that they expected the sponsorship to be a “simple rice cake promotion” but after learning about the history distortion, they contacted the production company to “withdraw their sponsorship immediately.”

| Ssarijai

Korean fashion brand GANISONG also followed suit, as they shared their official apologies with netizens who were “hurt by the history distortion.” GANISONG representatives stated that they were “never informed of the script’s synopsis in advance at the time of the sponsorship request.” 

Just like P&J Group and Ssarijai, the fashion brand also contacted the Snowdrop production team to withdraw their upcoming advertisements, while also asking them to “delete all related content” from the previous episodes.

| GANISONG

Tea brand TEAZEN, pottery brand Dopyeongyo, DysonDowny, mattress company SONO SEASON and Hans Electronics have also joined the list of sponsorship cancellations following Snowdrop‘s premiere this past weekend. Furniture brand Heungil Furniture was the first company to back out on its advertisement ventures, as they withdrew their sponsorship back in March when the initial backlash of the JTBC production began.

| Dyson

JTBC has not yet responded to the ongoing backlash nor the dozens of sponsorship withdrawals from the production. Stay tuned for further updates.

Source: Hankyung, Chosun and theqoo

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