SEVENTEEN’s Mingyu’s private pics leaked by L'Occitane employee

Luxury French brand L’Occitane is facing severe backlash following reports that one of its employees leaked inappropriate and private photos of SEVENTEEN’s Mingyu. The alleged photographs were taken during a commercial shoot.

The incident came to light after questionable photos from the brand’s Asia Ambassador campaign with Mingyu were shared on a personal social media account by one of the brand’s employees. In response, the brand has issued an apology and suspended the employee responsible.

In the official statement released by L’Occitane Korea, the brand issued a sincere apology for the breach of privacy. The statement read, “We sincerely apologize for the recent incident involving the unauthorized release of photos from the L’Occitane Asia Ambassador campaign, which were improperly distributed on the personal social media account of one of our employees. We acknowledge that there is no excuse for this breach and fully accept responsibility for what has occurred.”

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A post shared by 록시땅 코리아 L’OCCITANE en Provence (@loccitanekorea)

It further added, “We take this matter with the utmost seriousness, and we deeply regret the distress caused to the artist and all the fans. The employee involved has been completely removed from all duties, and immediate disciplinary action has been enforced.”

Reaffirming their commitment to upholding privacy, the brand assured fans that such an incident would not recur in the future. To ensure this, they will implement a strict training program for all employees. “This program will emphasize the critical importance of respecting copyrights, portrait rights, publicity rights, and the privacy of our brand ambassador. We will ensure that every employee thoroughly understands and adheres to these principles. We will approach this process with a strong sense of responsibility.”

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The brand has terminated the employee responsible. However, SEVENTEEN’s fandom, the CARATs, are not satisfied; fans are demanding further action. The employee, who shared the set of photographs, had captioned them, “Mingyu took up most of my photo album… I couldn’t delete them because I was nervous. I guess I should take care of it now.”

After the photos went viral, several fans expressed their outrage and criticized the photos that captured Mingyu inappropriately. Users have been using the hashtag #protectmingyu to demand the employee’s termination. They also criticized the employee for filming the artist inappropriately in the first place and then posting on social media.

ORGIL ANJIR NIH STAFF

브랜드 촬영 중에 민규를 동의 없이 촬영한 것은 심각한 사생활 침해입니다. @LOCCITANE_KOREA, 여러분의 앰버서더를 존중하고 전문성을 지키는 것이 중요합니다. 즉시 문제를 해결해 주세요. @pledis_17 @pledis17_STAFF #ProtectMingyu pic.twitter.com/Z8lU6evTm4

— ‘ \/ ‘ (@woolovewon6) September 2, 2024