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Thread about Polaris Entertainment mismanaging and mistreating Ladies’ Code for seven years straight aka the reason why Ladies’ Code left Polaris Entertainment
I’ve been a fan of Ladies’ Code since their debut and am the founder of one of their biggest fanbases ( @fy_lacode) so I’ve always been very involved in their careers and followed them closely. I’ve witnessed most of these following moments exactly when they happened.
Let’s start with Ladies’ Code’s (pre)debut days: Ladies’ Code were put on a strict diet before their debut. Ashley recently revealed that their manager at that time actually went through the members’ personal belongings to look for sweets/snacks when they weren’t at the dorm.
The manager literally went through the girls’ closets & threw away all the snacks they had hidden there, even the things they had gotten from their families. The manager made quite a mess & wasn’t very secretive about roaming through the girls’ belongings.
In the same clip, Ashley reveals that Polaris Ent monitored and controlled them constantly. Ladies’ Code wasn’t even allowed to go to the convience store without telling their manager beforehand. Polaris wanted to know when the members left and when they returned to the dorm.
Furthermore, the girls weren’t allowed to have individual phones. While this is rather common among newly debuted kpop groups, it is nevertheless unjustified and extreme. Especially since two out of the five LC members had family living abroad who they couldn’t reach easily.
Coming back to the topic of diets. As said, the girls were put on strict diets before their debut and while most of the members still looked fit, Sojung since the start had always been looking rather petite compared to the rest of the group.
tw // eating disorder
Eventually, before their comeback with “Pretty Pretty” in September 2013, Sojung revealed that she was suffering from anorexia caused by the strict dieting before and also during their debut.
Eventually, before their comeback with “Pretty Pretty” in September 2013, Sojung revealed that she was suffering from anorexia caused by the strict dieting before and also during their debut.
Now we get to wardrobe “malfunctions”. I will not post any pictures here but there are a bunch of EunB fancams from the Bad Girl era from events like festivals, etc. where she is very obviously wearing no safety pants under her very short hotpants thus openly exposing her body.
Something similar has happened to Ashley during their Pretty Pretty era, where stylists gave Ashley very short overalls that kept riding up and made her visibly uncomfortable. Again, I won’t post any pictures/videos.
This time the stylists had given Ashley safety pants but they were almost shorter than her outfit and thus barely protecting her at all. During So Wonderful era the stylist also made them wear very short dresses under which the safety pants were very visible.
Safety shorts should give idols a sense of safety, they aren’t there to fully and openly be exposed. Saftey shorts do not justify unreasonably short dresses/pants/outfits that make the idol feel uncomfortable while performing on stage.
Next up is one of the things that frustrates me as a long-time fan the most: an inconsistent teaser release schedule. Polaris Ent is barely able to consistently release teaser pictures and often just doesn’t post for one or two days after posting the first few teasers.
They release an initial teaser, then post again the next day but then there’s absolute silence for two or three days. Sometimes even longer. This has happened with almost every comeback they’ve had. It’s so frustrating that even Ashley demands more teasers.
Talking about comebacks and promotions: Polaris Ent is not able to get Ladies’ Code on any variety shows and fails to give them the promotion they deserve. The girls were mostly seen on shows after their promotion period had already ended.
Can we also talk about how Polaris Entertainment thought it was a really smart idea to hold the fan showcase for Ladies’ Code’s latest (and also last) comeback at 10 PM on a Thursday??? What’s up with that??
While we’re talking about Set Me Free: This album was fully produced by Polaris’ in-house producer team/company NEWTYPE. Which wouldn’t be so bad if they actually gave the girls songs that fit their voices and weren’t way too high-pitched.
Despite the fact that Polaris is super cheap for that (I’m assuming here that using in-house producers is less expensive), it also makes the girls uncomfortable performing on stage. Compare their Feedback performances to Set Me Free and you’ll see what I mean.
On that note it’s also time to talk about Polaris’ biggest fuck up, which is not completing the Healing Trilogy. The Healing Trilogy was originally planned to consist of three parts, three single albums that were meant to bring healing to LC and Lavelys after the accident.
They released MYST3RY in the beginning of 2016 and STRANG3R at the end of 2016 but after that the girls were put on a long-term hiatus of 2 ½ years. During the hiatus it was announced that there wouldn’t be a third album release for the Healing Trilogy.
Instead, Polaris decided to hold a fanmeeting in the beginning of 2018 for LC’s anniversary titled CODE #R3BORN, which was going to be the third and final part of the Healing Trilogy instead. There was no album, song or promotion involved at all.
Part of the reason why Polaris abandoned the idea of the Healing Trilogy is because Jaden Jeong, who was behind this project, left the company. Polaris was apparently not able to complete the trilogy on their own and just called it quits.
As said, the Healing Trilogy was a way to help Ladies’ Code find their way back into the music industry and it actually garnered quite a lot of attention, people were looking forward to their releases. But as Polaris wasn’t able to handle the trilogy themselves they just-
didn’t continue it and put Ladies’ Code on a hiatus that basically jeopardized their careers. Needless to say that LC unfortunately couldn’t build on their prior success with their comeback in 2019 after being put on a hiatus for 2 ½ years.
Ladies’ Code left Polaris after not resigning their contracts earlier this year and in a way disbanded, as the group is now put on hold and the members are pursuing solo careers in several fields of work. They left the company without ever releasing a full album.
Yes, I am still going. While we are kinda on the topic re: healing trilogy, their comeback after the accident: Polaris actually made them re-record their old ot5 songs as they had to perform them at festivals. The girls have mentioned how they didn’t want to do it but had to.
Now onto the issue that triggered this whole thread: Polaris making Ashley quit her radio job at tbs Double Date to participate on MixNine. And we all know how that show went…I don’t really have to say much just watch this video, it’s self-explanatory.
Ashley has always wanted to be a radio DJ and just when she had gotten an opportunity, Polaris, on a whim, made her quit to join MixNine as they thought it would be a better opportunity for her and the group as a whole.
I say “on a whim” because they had updated-
I say “on a whim” because they had updated-
the official Ladies’ Code schedule for the whole month of October earlier that month. They only changed the schedule a few days before Ashley left Double Date and before it was announced that Ashley was actually participating on MixNine.
At the end of the day Polaris made a big business mistake and should have let Ashley keep her radio job. Both Taeyang and YG saw her potential and how her talent would be wasted on such a show but her own company didn’t realize that. Much to think about.
“Funnily” enough Polaris gave Ashley a solo debut a few months after that incident. I assume they did this because of the feedback Ashley had gotten from Taeyang and YG. Maybe otherwise we wouldn’t have gotten anything…
Next up: Polaris Ent being unable to do the bare minimum for their artists and their artists’ fans.
For LC’s Feedback comeback in early 2019 Polaris actually gave out lightsticks to fans who were attending music shows. Fans were very happy until they actually saw those lightsticks because considering these were somewhat official they were a complete joke.
Here is another picture. I think you can see why the fans had an issue with these. Despite the fact that these weren’t well made, they also weren’t related to LC’s “official” color which the girls themselves said to be purple.
I say “official” because Polaris Ent never announced Ladies’ Code’s official color. We only got this information from the girls when they were asked in an interview which color represented Ladies’ Code the best.
The only fangoods we Lavelys got in the seven years that Ladies’ Code was part of Polaris Entertainment were a few slogans, an electric fan, a keyring and that atrocious lightstick. And none of them were really accessable for international fans.
I AM STILL GOING because this next topic is very important: Ladies’ Code’s manager being rude to fans.
The girls have had the same male manager for several years before they left and he’s the problem here. They also have a female manager but I’ve heard from fans that she’s actually very nice. The male manager though? Not so much apparently.
Korean as well as international fans who were seeing Ladies’ Code in Korea all said that the male manager was rude to them and visibly annoyed when fans approached Ashley for example after her radio schedule.
One Korean Lavely, who’s also running one of the few LC fansites, actually complained to Polaris Ent about the manager but instead of the management team the promotion team replied and said there was no feedback to give on that matter. Case closed.
Another fansite literally complained on Twitter “Polaris Ent, stop treating your fans like they’re below you”. Both of the fansites don’t go into much detail but knowing Polaris this isn’t hard to believe.
And while on the topic on fansites: It’s really sad to see fansites and fans in general putting in more work to promote Ladies’ Code than their own company. Korean fans have been organizing café events, made pretty calendars and even helped intl fans to get signed albums.
Fans also demanded for years for Polaris to make Ladies' Code's older albums accessible on intl streaming sites such as Spotify and Apple Music. Unfortunately that didn't happen until literally two days after LC had left the company. No idea how that happened but it's messed up.
Here's also another example why Polaris sucks: They can't even give their artists decent birthday posts. These are real posts, yes. Polaris made these and then posted them on their twitter. I know it's wild.
I am also just gonna leave this here. The girls were done waiting for years for another (half-assed) comeback. They've always felt bad for not being able to meet Lavelys more and all of that only because of an incompetent company.
And to make everyone even more miserable here's Ashley confirming what we fans had always feared: Ladies' Code, while under Polaris, didn't make any personal money. All the money they earned went to Polaris to pay off their debt.
All of this is just the tip of the iceberg tbh and I probably forgot some stuff but there's just so much going on in this company and the way they manage all their artists is awful. They're jeopardizing people's careers.
Oh, almost forgot some of the best tidbit about this whole mess: None of the Ladies' Code members thanked Polaris Entertainment for the past seven years. Only Ashley and Sojung thanked them for bringing them together. Which makes sense b/c the company didn't do anything for them.
In conclusion
Lavelys @ Polaris Entertainment
Lavelys @ Polaris Entertainment
One last thing I'd like to add. I am not exactly sure how I should put this into coherent words but the biggest take-away from this thread should be that Polaris Ent debuted a very promising girl group who won several big rookie awards only to let them completely go to waste
They wasted the girls time, effort, talent and careers because Polaris as a company was unable to properly manage an idol group. There have been a lot of issues inside the company. There have been scandals and big CEO changes over the years. Maybe they have even had financial
problems. Apparently they have been (or even still are) in debt because they were involved in the whole Donuts/Loona thing. I do not know the details of all that but I know that Polaris and BBC are related and initially face the same problems to an extent.
Without Lavelys constantly demanding footage, comebacks, variety shows, subbed videos, literally anything I doubt we would have gotten all that much. If Polaris had never allowed the girls to open personal Instagram accounts we wouldn't have gotten any updates for years probably.
Seeing your favorite group, your favorite people be constantly mistreated is upsetting and it hurts. Knowing what they could have accomplished with good and competent management makes me angry and I wish there could have been a change within Polaris but whenever things started to
get better again, the company just let us fans and the group down again.
tw // accident death
And let's not even talk about how Polaris has never protected them from malicious comments? The girls constantly have to deal with people bringing up the accident and the death of their two beloved members. People constantly tag them in
And let's not even talk about how Polaris has never protected them from malicious comments? The girls constantly have to deal with people bringing up the accident and the death of their two beloved members. People constantly tag them in
tw // accident death
inappropriate Instagram posts, their twitter search often includes keywords such as "ladies code accident" "ladies code death". Not to mention the funeral videos on YouTube that have garnered million(!!) of views. Some of those have more views than LC's MVs.
inappropriate Instagram posts, their twitter search often includes keywords such as "ladies code accident" "ladies code death". Not to mention the funeral videos on YouTube that have garnered million(!!) of views. Some of those have more views than LC's MVs.
tw // accident death
Ladies' Code wants to move on. They want to heal. But kpop fans and netizens constantly bring up the accident. They are more than the group who has lost two members in a car accident. They are more than your tragedy porn and I am so sick of only mentioning-
Ladies' Code wants to move on. They want to heal. But kpop fans and netizens constantly bring up the accident. They are more than the group who has lost two members in a car accident. They are more than your tragedy porn and I am so sick of only mentioning-
tw // accident death
LC when it's about the accident. They are real people with real feelings who went through a very traumatic and mentally as well as physically painful experience. Don't act like you care about them if it's only for gaining clout on twitter or youtube.
LC when it's about the accident. They are real people with real feelings who went through a very traumatic and mentally as well as physically painful experience. Don't act like you care about them if it's only for gaining clout on twitter or youtube.
