Reporters explored the harsh realities of the celebrity sponsor industry based off of the testimonies of individuals who were connected with the scene.
Channel A‘s Heard Through the Grapevines explored the contents of a celebrity sponsor contract including pay, abortions, and different “levels” of celebrities. One reporter mentioned that sponsor brokers are very systematic in their contracts. They keep track of the number of contracts each sponsored celebrity has as well as the amounts they are to be paid and the length of the contract.
The same reporter then went on to discuss the prices for a celebrity’s services, saying,
“I was able to go out and interview a sponsor broker and was told that celebrities are divided into different rankings. There are essentially no A-level celebrities in the sponsor industry. B-level celebrities get paid 15 million won per session and C-level celebrities get paid 3-5 million won per session.”
— Heard Through the Grapevines Reporter
Another reporter shocked the set with details on how abortions are handled by sponsors, stating that if a celebrity happens to become pregnant during the period of the contract, they must travel overseas and have an abortion. The reporter also mentioned that the contract signed between the sponsor and the celebrity would detail the exact amounts each side would have to pay for the operation.
In the past, Tahiti‘s Jisoo revealed that she was a target of a sponsor. The sponsor initially offered her 600 thousand won per session but continued to bump up his offer until it reached 4 million won per session. Jisoo revealed these messages to the public, showcasing the dark side of the celebrity industry.
Heard Through the Grapevines visited this same topic back in 2015 and in that report, noted that men with money are the ones to first contact a sponsor broker. The report also revealed that the link between sponsor brokers and celebrities are stylists, who will personally call the brokers once they are able to meet with the celebrity requested.
The anonymous broker revealed that prices for celebrities started at 3 million won and the highest someone has ever paid for a session was a staggering 700 million won. He also revealed that sponsor contracts usually last between 6 months to 1 year.
Source: Insight, Sports Today,
