Recently, Korean netizens criticized the virtual photocards of THE BOYZ for their close resemblance to BTS‘s concept photos.

THE BOYZ | @official_theboyz/Instagram BTS | Weverse

On November 14 (KST), a related post on the popular Korean community forum Instiz went viral. The OP (original poster) included some photos of THE BOYZ’s virtual photocards, which are made by Zepeto. The photocards in question, however, didn’t include the faces of the actual members but their Zepeto avatars. However, the virtual copies were signed by the respective artists.

| Instiz | Instiz

The setting of these virtual photocards immediately reminded netizens of BTS’s concept photos for their 2022 anthology album, Proof.

| Instiz

The commonalities between the pictures were quite obvious. The tiled background, the blue-adjacent lighting, and the specifically cross-shaped light projected onto the members’ faces were hard to miss in both sets of photos.

Most netizens seemed to agree with the OP, alleging that the photocards were blatant copies.

| Instiz “Whoa. I thought the ones at the bottom were Bangtan…It looks the same??? They aren’t even from the same company, though?”
– It’s absurd how they copied it so shamelessly. “What are they doing?” “No way. What is this?” “I thought of getting one since these seem like photocards, but I don’t even know what they are. Is this something made by Zepeto?” “This is too similar. What’s going on?” | Instiz “Huh? What’s this? It looks the same?” “I thought it was BTS fanart stuff.” “It was Zepeto that made those.” “The tile design, the thickness of the lines, the color of the light, and even the + shaped light reflected on their faces are the same as BTS.” “Is this an homage they did out of respect? If it isn’t, then it doesn’t make sense, LOL.”

While most netizens agree that these virtual photocards were too similar to BTS’s concept photos, they never expressed any criticism of the members of THE BOYZ, who practically had no involvement in the designs. The wave of criticism was mostly directed at Zepeto and the group’s agency.

 Netizens called out the company, not the members.