HYBE subsidiary TAG PR under fire in Hollywood, their involvement in Min Hee Jin conflict scrutinized

Okay, so I still have to do a HYBE/ADOR catchup post — that I’m putting off because I missed too much news that it’s now daunting — but something potentially related made the news recently and was more interesting.

So basically, the New York Times published an article recently about actor/director Justin Baldoni hiring a PR firm to tank actress Blake Lively‘s reputation due to concern that she would come forward with sexual harassment and mistreatment allegations.

But by August, the two men, who had positioned themselves as feminist allies in the #MeToo era, expressed fears that her allegations would become public and taint them, according to a legal complaint that she filed Friday. It claims that their P.R. effort had an explicit goal: to harm Ms. Lively’s reputation instead.

It’s a major ongoing story that’s worth a read*, if for no other reason than to get a peek behind the curtain of a crisis management and public relations firm.

*Not gonna lie, that’s the main reason for posting. I think if you’re going to consume entertainment news, it’s a good to read and have that perspective on what you see. A reminder for myself as well.

——

Okay, but what relevancy does this have to an Asian entertainment site, right? Right. Well, the crisis management PR firm he hired was TAG PR.

This year, after a decade at the New York consultancy Hiltzik Strategies, Ms. Nathan started her own firm, TAG PR. Its majority stakeholder is a company run by the entertainment industry executive Scooter Braun.

Ah, Scooter Braun pops up again, the now CEO of HYBE America. And back in August of this year, HYBE America acquired a controlling stake (51%) in TAG PR for $25 million, the same that’s now being labelled a “smear machine” in the New York Times.

Connecting all that to the ongoing HYBE/ADOR mess is Billboard’s Jeff Benjamin, who mentioned back in September he was sent information on Min Hee Jin by TAG PR, leading to back and forth over exactly what it was. Then after TAG PR got exposed today, he vaguely responded to accusations TAG PR never sent him anything with a tweet:

I never lied

— Jeff Benjamin (@Jeff__Benjamin) December 22, 2024

All of that is now leading to speculation of how involved they are in the Min Hee Jin and NewJeans front and whether they’re deploying similar tactics there as well. Then again, whether they’re leading the charge on this for HYBE or not, nothing can be all that surprising after their internal gossip rag was recently exposed a couple months ago.

Also, it’s kind of K-pop’s fandom’s own fault that these types of things are able to blend in seamlessly.

K-pop is so perfect for it because a company bot and a genuine company/fandom stan might post almost exactly the same.

[image or embed]

— Asian Junkie (@asianjunkie.bsky.social) December 22, 2024 at 1:39 AM