Korean figure/hobby communities are tight-knit and extremely online, so when a shop that built its reputation on being affordable suddenly hikes prices AND gets caught astroturfing its own giveaway, it spreads like wildfire. The brand's defensive "we'll treat critics as competitors" response made it so much worse and gave the internet even more to roast.
okay so there's this figure shop that went absolutely viral on Instagram a while back for having insanely good prices — like people were literally lining up outside the physical store to get their hands on stuff. it was THAT kind of hype.
but recently the prices crept up and the vibes shifted hard. people started getting salty in the comments and the goodwill was basically gone.
so to win back the crowd, the shop ran a giveaway event — comment on the post and get entered into a raffle to win a Maher-Ra figure. simple enough, right?
except. EXCEPT. some poor marketing employee forgot to log out of the shop's main account before dropping a comment. so they just... commented on the giveaway. with the brand account. in broad daylight. for everyone to see. 💀💀💀
obviously the comment section went feral immediately. and instead of just taking the L quietly, the shop doubled down — basically saying "anyone who keeps talking about this will be treated as a competitor trying to sabotage us." bro. BRO. that's not damage control that's a second explosion.
the marketing team really said "let me make this worse" and understood the assignment in the worst way possible lmaooo. this is sending me fr fr.
source: Figure Gallery (피규어 갤러리)