Did IVE’s Wonyoung Overshadow LE SSERAFIM? — Netizens Compare Brand Powers

As two of the most popular fourth-generation K-Pop girl groups, IVE and LE SSERAFIM both enjoy immense global popularity. But recently, netizens have gotten to comparing their brand power.

IVE

LE SSERAFIM

The comparisons surfaced after a viral post pointed out that a brand that Chaewon was the ambassador of was selling out products under Wonyoung’s name. The brand in question is the Japanese loungewear line called Gelato Pique.

In 2024, the brand announced all members of LE SSERAFIM as its brand ambassadors. Since then, the group has appeared in numerous campaigns for them.

On the other hand, Wonyoung was spotted wearing a Gelato Pique loungewear set in one of her recent Instagram posts, which sparked a huge curiosity among her fans about the brand.

After Wonyoung’s post, the demand for Gelato Pique items supposedly shot up so much that news outlets reported on it, tagging them as “Jang Wonyoung Pajamas.” The Gelato Pique pop-up store at the Hyundai Seoul reportedly surpassed ₩100 million KRW (about $69,400 USD) sales in just three days.

| Nate Pann

This incident has netizens pointing fingers at Wonyoung’s supposedly overshadowing influence over Chaewon, who is arguably one of the most popular members in her group.

| Nate Pann

• “I guess she has more impact…I’m sorry, but I didn’t even know Chaewon was a model for the brand.”
• “It’s obvious. Wonyoung is prettier and more popular.”
• “I didn’t even know she was a model for the brand.”
• “The older male fans of LE SSERAFIM hate ‘AnYoungz’ so much that they called them traitors. But it turns out that Wonyoung and Yujin are both successful. It’s f*cking funny.”

However, many have defended Chaewon and LE SSERAFIM against these harsh comments, pointing out that the brand also received a huge marketing push for featuring LE SSERAFIM as models, as demonstrated by multiple news headlines.

• “Even if you had searched just a little, you would have seen that they were being promoted well with LE SSERAFIM as well. When Wonyoung wore their clothes, the articles came out mentioning her name. Why are you portraying it as if they promoted using Wonyoung instead of Chaewon? Are you stupid?”

• “Dear OP, stop yelling in all the male celebrity galleries and girl group galleries. I’m in the process of collecting everything and sending them over.”

Though there’s no doubt that Wonyoung wearing those pajamas did create quite the demand for the product, it is also undisputable that LE SSERAFIM’s brand power has been consistently pushing the brand for nearly a year. While netizens tried to pit the two idols against one another, the truth is that the ultimate winner at the end was only one, and that was Gelato Pique!