Crayon Pop's Bank Account Incident
The South Korean girl group formed in 2012 -under Chrome Entertainment - Crayon Pop has been widely criticised for opening opening a bank account specifically for charitable contributions.
The issue was that the announcement was worded incorrectly. The announcement seemed to emphasize that the bank account was for gifts instead of making it clear that the deposits would be donated to charity.
The announcement states: "As Crayon Pop rises in popularity (...) it is sometimes difficult to handle all the presents (...) From now on, the gifts we receive from fans, whether it's five on-site or via mail, will not be accepted. You can gift Crayon Pop in another way instead. We will soon open up a account specifically for presents. Those who want to offer gifts can enter a deposit into the account. Once the account reaches a certain sum, it will be donated to help those in need and charity organisations."
A good deed never goes unpunished and the fact that they did not consult with fans prior their announcement was not received well, especially amongst those who had already prepared gifts or were planning to give the girls gifts with no monetary value.
Moreover, the wording of the announcement, mentioning a special bank account being set up and asking fans send in deposits raised suspicions of observers.
After the backlash, Crayon Pop and Chrome Entertainment issued an official apology and announced they would rethink their previous decision.
First the company stated: "The reason why we decided not to receive gifts was because the members felt burdened when they received expensive gifts. We chose a ‘donation' method where both the fans and the singers could be happy, but we didn't put enough thought into the method or the way we spoke up about it.
Of course we are thankful for the gifts, but it's also true that we feel sorry. It's burdensome for both the person who gives and the person who receives, and for student fans who aren't financially well off, it could even be bad. And even when the members wear it (gifts), that could create a misunderstanding.
We can't accurately divide the presents between what we can and what can't receive. We also cannot ignore the effort of our fans, so we had to figure out a solution that would best suit the both of us. We chose a method of donation that everyone could be happy with, but we weren't good in the execution and in the words we chose. We are sorry."