NewJeans "smartly" tries to outdo ADOR, rumors of collusion to steal the show?

According to a recent report by Ten Asia, the NewJeans group recently expressed its intention to directly sign a two-way contract with the global luxury watch brand O, through a manager of ADOR Company, identified as A.

O is believed to be Omega - the brand that recently announced Danielle as its new ambassador. Manager A is said to have spoken to the brand and started discussing a contract directly with NewJeans. It has also been revealed that NewJeans has been in contact with another luxury brand through another former ADOR manager, identified as B.

At the press conference announcing the termination of the contract with ADOR (from November 29), NewJeans stated that they will minimize the damage to advertisers by continuing to comply with existing agreements. Their intention is to ensure that the advertisements signed before they announced the termination of the contract will proceed without any problems.

However, NewJeans' attempt to seek a new contract through ADOR employees has been controversial. Industry insiders say that NewJeans' pursuit of a new contract through employees still on ADOR's payroll, while claiming to have terminated its contract with ADOR, is contradictory.

Upon discovering NewJeans' behavior, ADOR immediately took control and suspended manager A. In addition, the company informed O and another luxury brand that signing a two-way contract with NewJeans would violate their exclusive contract.

According to Ten Asia, this situation has further destabilized the advertising industry, as brands fear potential lawsuits from ADOR, if they follow NewJeans' unilateral actions.

The current standard exclusive contract of the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism requires all entertainment activities of the artist to be carried out through the agency.

During the contract period, the artist cannot negotiate the agreement on their own without the approval of the agency. If a third party actively participates in the artist's breach of contract, they may also face legal liability.

“I don’t understand why they are rushing into advertising deals or setting up individual accounts when they can wait patiently while the lawsuit is ongoing,” an industry insider pointed out. “Advertising is the most sensitive issue in the industry and they seem to be acting too hastily.”

Previously, 5 members of NewJeans (Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, Hyein) created a new Instagram account called jeanzforfree, to interact with fans, replacing the private platform Phoning that they used to use (owned by ADOR and HYBE).

In addition, the group's fashion and advertising activities are still updated on this account, such as the announcement that Danielle became the global ambassador of the Omega brand, or the 12 covers of Vogue Korea magazine that were just announced on December 18. But the name NewJeans does not appear in any of the posts.

After 4 days of the account being created, ADOR Company recently made an official statement. ADOR said that the jeanzforfree account was opened by 5 members without prior agreement with the company. Third-party advertisers are questioning and complaining about the content posted on this account.

“NewJeans has dedicated platforms created specifically for communicating with fans, as well as official social media accounts such as Instagram and X (Twitter). ADOR hopes that NewJeans members will continue to interact with fans through these official channels as they have done so far,” the company added.

Previously, after NewJeans announced the termination of the contract, ADOR filed a lawsuit to verify that the exclusive contract between the company and NewJeans is still valid until July 31, 2029. ADOR emphasized that NewJeans cannot pursue entertainment activities outside the scope of the contract with ADOR.

NewJeans officially "erases" ADOR, removes the group's name on social media, and re-releases the cover Phúc Sen06:45:29 19/12/2024On December 18, fashion magazine Vogue Korea announced the cover faces for its inaugural issue (January) 2025, which are 5 female Kpop idols Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein (members of the girl group NewJeans).