Netizens are calling this “unmistakable” evidence.

ILLIT has been compared to NewJeans since their debut. Even pre-debut, many called them “NewJeans 2.0,” with netizens worldwide mistaking them for NewJeans.

Many have chalked this up to their promotional and creative team, who allegedly seemed to have benchmarked NewJeans’ concept and promotions as a formula to success. This was further pointed out by ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin during her recent feud with HYBE.

Recently, a netizen pointed out something that they had realized. NewJeans’ follows a unique template for the information box on each of their videos. They provide the details of their producer and music video director, followed by a copyright claim and a list of all their social media links.

This format has been present since their debut, and followed for later releases.

The netizen realized that ILLIT had followed this exact template for their own music videos.

While this might not have posed a huge problem or raised any doubts normally, the netizen compared the descriptions to other singers under HYBE. Even ENHYPEN, who is also under BELIFT LAB like ILLIT, uses a completely different format. ENHYPEN lists all the people who worked on the video.

LE SSERAFIM, who debuted the same year as NewJeans, also uses the same format as ENHYPEN. Even for their latest release with “EASY,” they did not adapt NewJeans’ format.

The same goes for TXT.

What was even more convincing was that HYBE’s latest release of BTS RM‘s solo track also simply lists all the people who worked on the video. As this is HYBE’s latest release, one cannot argue that they simply decided to update the formatting for consistency in 2024.

Netizens are disgruntled at the “blatant” way that ILLIT’s promotional team seems to be copying NewJeans, even down to their YouTube formatting.

• Gasp, this is unmistakable LOL. I was curious so I personally went into HYBE’s account to see, and checked a few labels. Only ILLIT and NewJeans’ format is the same.
• Taobao NewJeans LOL.
• That’s right. If they were to copy a format, they should’ve done the same as ENHYPEN.
• It’s not just one or two things, but right now, there are probably over 10 things that are the same. At this rate, it’s not forced, but true that they copied NewJeans…
• FR, even sometimes when you experience communal living IRL, there’s someone who copies small things about you. This seems like that. From the person who is being copied, you could find it creepy and unpleasant, but if you bring it up, they will likely say you’re overly self-conscious and that it is a coincidence. There are so many instances like that, and this seems like something similar. But anyway, I’m sure that the ILLIT kids probably knew about a few instances themselves, but I feel so sorry for them that they have to be called copycats as soon as they debuted…
• At this rate, this is so creepy… I think it’s true that HYBE planned to not only kick out Min Hee Jin after ILLIT debuted, but to also neglect NewJeans.
• This is not just “following,” this is practically a photocopy.

What do you think?

Source: theqoo