2021-07-13 Email from ADOR (CBO Office) to HYBE (Park Jiwon)

This email was made public in 2024-07-23 ADOR statement

English Translation (@juantokki): https://x.com/juantokki/status/1815716794344325533 

From: (HYB_CBO Office) Shin Dong Hoon

To: Jiwon

CC'd: Ye(-Min Kim); Min He-Jin

Mr. Jiwon,
The material you attached was written by Source (Music) in Aug 2020.

As Ms. Hee-Jin explained last week,After we received a launching offer initially proposed by Big Hit Marketing team (Mr. Si-Hyuk’s Proposal, Written by Ms. Lee Hye-Jin) in March 2020, there was some contents that we could not agree and lot of point that differs from the direction which Ms. Hee-Jin thinks.
Therefore we wrote CBO launching strategy on our own in May 2020. We also gave a presentation about this to a people in charge of Source Music and Universe canon team including Mr. Si-Hyuk and Mr. Seong-Jin.
(The file attached by Ms. Yemin before and what we presented to Mr. Jiwon last week)

However, Mr. Si-Hyuk who listened to the presentation at the time,
Said Ms. Hee-Jin’s presentation is excellent but unprecedented, so he thinks it will be difficult to fulfill with Source Music’s existing infrastructure, suggested that proceeding this at M-Label (note: It’s supposed to be the in-house code of the multi-label plan or new label).
And he presented opinion that Team 2021 should be a team who absorb the last juice (an actual expression from him) of legacy Girl Group market.

At that time, Ms. Hee-Jin expressed her intention to quit from Team 2021 and to focus on M-Label because that opinion was too far from her idea. But she withdrew her opinion to quit because Mr. Si-Hyuk actively dissuaded her.

After that, Source re-suggested the previous plan in August 2020 (The file Mr. Jiwon referred in this mail),

It reflected a lot of Ms. Hee-Jin's launch strategy in May in a reduced concept. It also seems that several parts were copied based on the circumstances and content.
Because of this, Ms. Hee-Jin and Ms. Ye-Min complained to Source Music and Mr. So Seong-Jin accurately. All the staff acknowledged this, Mr. So Seong-Jin also could not deny it.

For example, comparing the direction of the strategy,
The Source (Music)’s strategy in March focused on “growing narrative as a beautiful leader,” while the Source’s plan in August shifted to “an exploration to find real me, a narrative of girls’ growth and adventure.”
This shows that the direction material in the August had not been developed from their launch strategy in March, (as there are no similarities).
Instead, it aligns more closely with the launching strategy proposed by the CBO Office in May.

The message in the May CBO materials about connecting with teenagers' feelings and aspirations is seen in the August source, which targets teenage women with relatable messages and aspirational visuals. This is a significant change from the March Big Hit (source) materials, where the main target was mixed and focused more on male fans.

The concept of “Teen Influencer” from the CBO materials in May is reflected in the August Source’s file as similar ideas like “Peers for teenage girls worldwide, giving a straightforward and free feeling” and “global influencer” etc.
The contents of CBO file in May, “Based on the sympathy and admiration of teenagers”,
In August’s source data, it is reflected as “The message that induces consensus with teenage women as the main target + appeals as a wannabe of their age with a visual that they want to imitate”,
The main target was mixed in the existing Big Hit (Source) plan in March, also completely different from the point was focused on male fans.

In addition, Mr. Si-hyuk's opinion which would follow the legacy girl group’s stance, which was the basis for opposition to CBO presentation in May, was not reflected.

To reduce unnecessary dispute even though we were aware of the problems in the August file,
In the big context of collaboration, the CBO office did not point it out in the first place.
Since then, Source’s side said the CBO file for May has been “Dropped” during the practical process, and the strategy is “impossible to implement” at Source Music, it seemed necessary to indicate the severity of the error and the contents related to the similarities above.
As explained above, Ms. Ye-Min raised the issue clearly to the entire administrative once,
There is a fact that Ms. Hee-Jin clearly complained in the meeting with Mr. Sung-Jin, even staff of Source Music admitted this in and Mr. Sung-Jin also couldn’t deny it.

Therefore, you can understand the attached Source’s file in August 2020 as a copy/reduced/edited data for CBO Office’s file in May 2020.

In addition,
I think these precedents with impolite behaviour are continuing because of the case that girl group trainees appeared in the BTS music video last week without prior consultation with us.
I am concerned that there are several situations which make difficult to trust Source Music or Big Hit music.