SM Entertainment Raises Suspicions Of Plagiarism With aespa’s “Savage” Teaser Photos

The similarities are hard to ignore.

aespa is exciting fans as they begin to tease their upcoming comeback. The girls will make their highly awaited return on October 5, 2021 with their first mini album titled Savage. As they slowly tease their fans with new concept photos, however, the girls and their agency are making headlines for alleged plagiarism — once again.

aespa “Savage” group teaser photo | SM Entertainment

The SM Entertainment monster girl group recently shared some stunning individual photos of Ningning,

“Savage” teaser photo for aespa’s Ningning | SM Entertainment

Karina,

“Savage” teaser photo for aespa’s Karina | SM Entertainment

Winter,

“Savage” teaser photo for aespa’s Winter | SM Entertainment

and Giselle.

“Savage” teaser photo for aespa’s Giselle | SM Entertainment

As the excitement began to form regarding the girls’ comeback, however, some of aespa’s teaser photos have become the center of criticism for their similarity to other artists’ works.

The above photos of the aespa members wearing headpieces have been accused of plagiarizing British designer James Merry. James Merry is the co-creative designer for Icelandic musician Björk and has been credited as the mastermind behind some of her amazing headpieces.

James Merry’s headpieces for Björk’s “Utopia” album | James Merry

Here are James Merry’s headpieces and aespa’s comeback photos side-by-side.

aespa’s headpieces (top) and James Merry’s headpieces (bottom).

But this is not the only “Savage” teaser photo that is being called out for its alleged plagiarism. In the photo below, Karina can be seen lying mid-air with a skeletal serpent-like being wrapped around her body. And while this was explained as an homage to the snake in aespa’s debut song “Black Mamba,” netizens couldn’t help but notice the similarity between this photo…

“Savage” teaser photo for aespa’s Karina | SM Entertainment

…and this photo. The photo in question is the work of Japanese illustrator Hajime Sorayama. The illustrator’s artwork features a woman in the same mid-air position with a robot-looking being wrapped around her body.

Artwork by illustrator Hajime Sorayama.

This is not the first time aespa and SM Entertainment has been hit with plagiarism accusations. The girl group’s debut song “Black Mamba” was also called out for its alleged plagiarism after netizens noticed many similarities between aespa’s music video and German visual artist Timo Helgert‘s work…

aespa’s “Black Mamba” music video photos (left) and Timo Helgert’s art (right) | Sports Kyunghyang

…and one of their “Black Mamba” Inkigayo stages was also accused of copying the work of artist Blake Kathryn.

And while SM Entertainment addressed each plagiarism accusation at the time of its occurrence, they have yet to address the allegations surrounding aespa’s recent “Savage” teaser photos. Stay tuned for updates.

Source: Money Today

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