A TV ad featuring members of K-pop girl band Blackpink dressed in miniskirts has been banned by the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission.
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The watchdog ordered 11 domestic TV stations to remove the commercial, promoting Shopee, a major online retailer in Southeast Asia, on 11 December over indecency.
“Companies need to be careful when they’re making a commercial that they don’t associate their product with something Indonesians see as negative”, commission head said on Tuesday.
Shopee described the watchdog’s remarks as “very valuable input”, at the same time stressing that the commercial was given the green light by another government agency before hitting the airwaves.
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The commission’s decision was triggered by a petition signed by over 100,000 people, which, in turn, sparked a furious backlash from fans on social media, who didn’t consider the ad vulgar:
Blackpink debuted only two years ago but has already gone down in history as the first female K-pop band to have hit the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 55.