Newly Leaked Debut Plans For NewJeans And ILLIT Raise Plagiarism Suspicions Once More

On November 11, 2024, news outlet Hankyeore obtained a report titled “Belift Lab’s New Girl Group Plan (ILLIT)” and another report titled “2021 Team Launching Plan (NewJeans)” through a tip off. The reports showed that although both groups had 3 years between each other, the report’s design, as well as other keywords, were oddly similar. This raised suspicions of plagiarism once again.

The reports had similar formats and styles, such as the following diagram.

NewJeans’ plan.

ILLIT’s plan.

Hankyeore reported that the two reports had similar designs as if they used the same template. However, it was not a company-wide or common template, as Min Hee Jin previously stated that she had personally designed the graphics for the report herself back in May 2020 on Keynote, when she was active as HYBE’s CBO (brand officer). Hankyeore confirmed that even if HYBE provides report and presentation templates, they are unique to each label. As ILLIT is under Belift Lab rather than ADOR, they would not have had access to the template. Min Hee Jin provided her report to Belift Lab previously upon HYBE’s instruction.

NewJeans’ report used a circle diagram to indicate the “areas of expansion in the international market,” targeting “Asia and North American standard K-Pop fandoms” through “lifestyle” and “aesthetic.”

NewJeans’ report.

NewJeans’ report also proposed marketing a “sense of kinship (dongjilgam)” and “sense of yearning (donggyungshim)” to differentiate NewJeans from other artists.

NewJeans’ report.

ILLIT similarly chose the keywords for sense of kinship and sense of yearning in Korean. They also reflected “influence on lifestyle” as a trait.

ILLIT’s report.

Once again, ILLIT’s report was eerily similar to NewJeans’ in terms of design.

ILLIT’s report.

Hankyeore pointed out that it was suspicious as the market trends would have shifted over the course of three years. NewJeans’ was planned in 2020, while ILLIT was planned in 2023. The similarities raised suspicions of plagiarism once more.