#blockberry creative

there are some things that i think need to be said in the wake of the dispatch chuu article, and that i haven't seen anyone else directly address.

tldr for those who didnt see: loona had a system with blockberry where they shared costs equally, but revenue 70-30 in bbc's favor. this means that if the cost was $100, and the revenue was $100, loona and bbc each paid $50, but bbc earned $70 and loona earned $30, so loona went $20 more in debt to bbc despite the project recouping all of its expenses. these numbers only get worse the higher the cost/revenue ratio is. loona even pays bbc if there is zero revenue, because they get loona's portion of the cost.

functionally, this means that loona stays in debt. forever. according to bbc's numbers, the loona members - even after all of loona's successes and the fact that it makes a net gain now - are all still around $150,000 in debt to the company after 5 years. this is in addition to the other abuses standard to the idol industry, like starvation and mental abuse.

what i want to talk about is this: a series of facts.

1. many of the girls' families were concerned about the promises bbc made to their trainees and thought loona was a scam at best and a trafficking scheme at worst.

2. yves was promised debut within weeks of joining bbc. olivia hye trained for one day. loona 1/3 was flown all over the world for teeny tiny teaser videos. all of this was pre-debut. many of them talk about it seeming too good to be true.

3. go won and olivia hye have admitted they were already starstruck by older members of loona like heejin before even considering joining bbc. they saw their ads at the bus stop on the way to school. they wanted badly to be friends with them.

4. all contracts are individual. any revenue from one girl was given solely to her and applied solely to her own debt.

4a. chuu is the only member who's escaped her trainee debt. her revenue was not applied to anyone else's debts.

6. when a member is in debt to the company at the end of her contract, she can be compelled to renew to pay it back.

7. loona had the most expensive predebut in kpop history.

8. of the 12 members, only haseul, vivi, jinsoul, and yves were over south korea's age of majority — 19 in international age — when they debuted.

8a. of these 4, only vivi, jinsoul, and yves were 20. haseul had turned 19 less than four months ago. 9. kim lip was 18 when she debuted with 'eclipse.' chuu was 18 when she debuted with 'heart attack.' choerry was 17 when she debuted with 'love cherry motion.' go won was 17 when she debuted with 'one and only.' hyunjin was 16 when she debuted with 'around you.' olivia hye was 16 when she debuted with 'egoist.' heejin was 15 when she debuted with 'vivid.'

9a. yeojin was 14 years old when she debuted with 'kiss later'.

i'm begging at this point.

ChuuJustice is a team of Orbits hoping to start a boycott of BBC in protest of the wrongful removal of Chuu. Our hope is to push BBC into treating their artists with respect and to have them admit their wrongful actions against their artists. Twitter will be the main source of information on this effort.

It is a well known fact that BBC mistreats their workers and their artists. Loona has been overworked and underpaid for YEARS now. This needs to stop. As this is in the wake of CHUUs wrongful termination, it is also important that we (orbits and other fans) push for BBC to either provide evidence of Chuus "abusive behaviour" OR admit to defamation. The hashtags we've settled on are #BlockBerryBoycott and #LoonaIsTwelve.

We have a discord server dedicated to working on this. In said discord there are roles connected to what each member will be working on. Our teams subdivisions include:

- Chuu Mistreatment Archive (an archive of all mistreatment BBC has committed against Chuu since the beginning of her connections with the company, to her wrongful termination.)

- General Mistreatment Archive (an archive of all mistreatment BBC has committed against ALL employees, including (but not limited to) the rest of LOONA, stylists, choreographers, trainees, etc.)

- Korean Labour Laws/Legal team (gathering evidence to prove BBC has committed crimes against their workers, such as human rights violations and defamation. THIS DOES NOT MEAN WE ARE PURSUING LEGAL ACTION. We at ChuuJustice recognise that there are people handling this behind the scenes. Our goal is to obtain as much information as possible so that we can provide comprehensive information about exactly what BBC has done wrong and why they need to be boycotted.)

- Content Creation (creation of articles and graphics such as the ones at the end of this post)

- Outreach and Networking (connecting with as many other people as possible, preferably those with large platforms so our message is further spread)

- Translators (we already have translators for: Indonesian, Spanish, French, Arabic. Any other translators would be wonderful. We want the boycott to be accessible to everyone willing to help.)

ABOUT MISTREATMENT: mistreatment is a broad term, to narrow it down we are focusing on the overworking, underpaying, harsh diets (starvation), lack of proper promotion, etc.

We are hoping for many orbits to participate. We are working on a list of demands, we have a drafted version that we would like to be workshopped. We have discussed our list extensively, but any advice and input from participating orbits is welcomed.

We are trying to get as much traction as possible. Orbits have discussed boycotting for years, and yet nothing has been done. We are tired of waiting, if we want change to come we must respond accordingly. Please help us help LOONA and Chuu.

AFOREMENTIONED GRAPHICS:

PLEASE NOTE we have already reached our goal of receiving a video from DOYOURAM. please refrain from further emails. Our graphics will be updated with time. Furthermore, it is suggested that you delete SSLO entirely. You CAN save your account and progress. Please do so.

Blockberry Creative

Part 3 - It gets so much worse

A few hours ago, Blockberry Creative submitted the following statement:

Essentially, what they themselves are saying is that they intend to have the members that got out of their contracts blacklisted from the industry. I don't think I need to explain any further for you to get what's going on here. Blockberry have essentially stopped to the level of a toddler breaking their toys so no-one can take them away. In fact, the level is below even that because we're talking about people's livelihoods, their dreams. These girls have spent an untold number of years training in various ways before they even debuted and up to 6 years as part of LOONA after. The group would not exist if it weren't for Heejin, it wouldn't have found its appeal if it weren't for OEC, and it wouldn't have been as popular if it weren't for Chuu but now BBC are ready to forget about all of that because the girls stopped putting up with their shit.

This isn't just shady business dealings anymore, this is straight up evil. They want to take away what these girls have worked for over years and they don't care if they succeed. After all, if they don't, they'll still use it to put fear into the members who are stuck in that godforsaken company.

Still, there is hope. The evidence made public so far is surely just the tip of the iceberg if BBC are acting this recklessly. The legal case against them keeps growing and we, as a community, can help with that by signing LOONA Union's petition, linked below (just hit the "view on Twitter" button. What will not help is harassing the various Blockberry Creative social media accounts. The underpaid students running them are the ones who will receive the hate and they're not the ones responsible for what's going on. They're just trying to make a living in this late-stage capitalist nightmare world.