Two things that are unique to K-Pop are lightsticks and photocards. Both are key items for any K-Pop fan, but the way people collect them can vary depending on the groups and each fan’s individual decisions. One company that has always had beautiful lightsticks is SM Entertainment…
Aespa’s Winter and Karina with their lightstick NCT’s Jaehyun with the group’s lightstick Red Velvet’s Seulgi holding their lightstick
Like all companies, when you buy the item, they normally come with a pack of photocards that see the members holding their lightsticks.
Yet, SM Entertainment’s recent decision with its lightsticks has come under fire. Recently, the company announced a fresh batch of sales for their artists.
When fans went to buy the lightsticks, they were happy to see that photocards came with the items, but some were confused as only one was showing rather than having all of the members, as most companies do. Yet, many gave them the benefit of the doubt as it might have been too much to have all the PCs, especially with the size of some of the groups.
Yet, looking closer at the details of the lightstick, netizens noticed that there was no error. In fact, SM Entertainment advertised that with each lightstick, fans would get one random photocard of one member.
When the photos were shared and netizens noticed SM’s new stance on photocards, they couldn’t stop criticizing the company, calling them cheap and greedy.
Not only were there no upgrades with the lightsticks, but they also made it hard for fans who collect photocards. In particular, they emphasized how hard it makes lives for collectors because while buying albums to collect all the photocards is tough, it’s doable, but buying excessive amounts of lightsticks in the hope of collecting them all seems impossible.
okay so not only the NCT and WayV lightsticks comes with ONE (1) RANDOM PC now, but WayV have 2 different PCs so wayzennis need to fight to get their bias PCs randomly out of 26 options available pic.twitter.com/y85PavRppN
— Annie 🩵 (@nuo2yi) February 13, 2024
?? other SM artist also going through the same thing… but i think the worse is 1 out of 20 ㅠㅠ for a lightstick? all lightsticks usually comes with a set of photocards. this is just greedy… @SMTOWNGLOBAL are the bills overdue or something? pic.twitter.com/FTmC7DwAlc
— 에스파 포카 (@aespapcs) February 13, 2024
sm who can’t even give us a ver.2 of the lightstick is now selling the lightstick with photocards and given in random at that…https://t.co/ANOxo2gc4C pic.twitter.com/2rUBRfQH32
— A (@taengirenes) February 13, 2024
Other agencies would have get a new lightstick design to sell with photocards, but no SM is just selling an old version lightstick that most already have with the photocards of the members people gonna get is random
— (@seimeizu) February 13, 2024
K-Pop companies have always been criticized for taking advantage of fans, and many have dubbed this decision a product of “capitalism greed.”
