From McDonald’s Fries to Coca-Cola Ads: V’s Endorsements Under Scrutiny

When Coke partnered with BTS’ V to become the new face of the brand’s Coke Zero campaign, the K-pop group became mired in a social media boycott led by ARMYs from around the world. Calling out the “tone-deaf” move for being “deeply disappointing” during the genocide in Gaza, fans of the South Korean boy band have since come to BTS member V’s aid to disavow the deal the group signed with Coca-Cola Korea.

Admittedly, this is not V’s first controversial run-in with hot-button brands. Last year, the Korean idol posted a photo of McDonald’s fries with the caption “deadly food”, which was quickly cited by ARMYs in boycotting BTS for their HYBE CEO’s hypocrisy. The same pattern repeated for V when Coca-Cola dropped a still image of the 27-year-old as the hero of the new and “juicy” #BestCokeEver campaign.

“Coke Zero,” the tea boy captioned, along with the July 31 update. “We’re about to make it DRIP with all that’s about to come. The COKE ZE POVA IS BACK.”

As pictured above, the photo V posted to tease the campaign, featured him with new bottles of Coke Zero with its label removed, revealing the HYBE star himself against a black background. The hero product, V, looks to the left as if he’s about to sip the carbonated beverage from a straw.

V Drops the Ball Where the Rest of BTS Failed

In fairness to V, he has not exactly been at the forefront of BTS members who spoke out on the genocide in Gaza. Ever since the Hamas terror attacks in October 7 last year, BTS has been conspicuously silent over Israel’s retaliatory response, which has led to over 38,000 Gazans being killed and at least 83,000 Palestinians maimed, injured, or taken hostage.

The decision by V to drop by as the new face of Coke Zero is not only timely (or untimely), but something that the international community of ARMYs has come to despise for standing in the way of Israel’s war against the Islamic Emirate of Gaza.

“The genocide of innocent Palestinians who are mostly children has now reached a point where the international community considers it a genocide, which is not a label a group should be proud to be associated with,” a netizen stated. “You have to ask yourselves whether BTS wants to associate itself with such a genocide.”

International fans are not the only ones who have come to call out V and HYBE over the decision. Anti-Israeli sentiments by BTS and V in particular were compounded on Saturday after the group’s Facebook page shared an article by a South Korean newspaper on V’s new role as Coke Zero ambassador.

“Our partnership with him who is said to be Asia’s first leading man now stands to be the face of the ‘Coke Zero’ campaign for Korea,” said Jung Chan-ho, the head of brand marketing and planning at Coca-Cola Korea.

Twitter Trends with #StopGenocideInGaza

Another netizen said it best in reminding V that a disproportionate anumberof Gazans who were killed were children:

“This is not part of marketing. This genocide against the children is shameful… I can’t help but be infuriated by your arrogance, what a miserable world you live in.”

Online, fans have since organized a boycott of Coca-Cola Zero and those who endorsed the beverage’s biggest collaboration for the year so far: BTS member V. The boycott now trends on Twitter as #StopGenocideInGaza.

Coca-Cola Denies Working With Israel Amid Calls for Boycott

In the latest wave of controversy, Coca-Cola has been tied to calls to boycott over its alleged operations in Israel. The beverage giant denied working with Israel amid the Gaza war and was ordered to back down by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

“Coca-Cola has ZERO involvement in Israel whatsoever. This is false and not true at all, and is very irresponsible of the Israeli Defense Forces to make this claim, which is not at all based on any facts,” Coca-Cola said in a statement to AFP on July 17.

Activists, however, said the moves by Coca-Cola to disassociate from Israel were a “distraction” since its Israeli franchise and factories had long operated in illegal settlements.

Coca-Cola Israel reportedly has a production facility in the Atarot Settlement Industrial Zone in the north of occupied East Jerusalem, while its Tabor Winery facility near Kiryat Arba in the south produces wine using grapes grown in the occupied West Bank and in the Syrian Golan Heights, WhoProfits found.