- calendar_today August 23, 2025
BTS’ V Endorsement Draws Criticism From Pro-Palestine Supporters
BTS member Kim Taehyung, known globally by his stage name V, is currently in the crosshairs of enraged fans following his newly revealed appointment as the official brand ambassador of Coca-Cola Zero in South Korea.
The decision, announced on July 31, has since been perceived as “tone deaf” and “deeply disappointing” by many because the company is on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) list in light of the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
The campaign is Coca-Cola Korea’s latest marketing effort and was revealed under the hashtag #BestCokeEver. In flashy visuals released during the product’s campaign launch, the world now knows V is replacing his HYBE label mates, the girl group NewJeans, as the brand’s next endorser.
No stranger to controversies, what came next, however, is not your run-of-the-mill criticism of brand endorsements, as we have come to expect from artists.
What makes it so scandalous to the mainstream audience? BTS members, including V, are no longer perceived as politically and socially neutral by their now-global fanbase, who have taken a liking to their fight for justice.
BTS members have, over the years, been very vocal about discrimination against Asians, and on other, related fronts. BTS ARMYs and K-pop fans have seen the members of the group champion issues publicly, including and beyond, most notably their support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
Yet, with all that has been happening in Gaza over the past few months and now escalating into a full-blown humanitarian crisis, BTS members have been significantly quiet. That silence, from a fanbase’s point of view, has now, more than ever, become deafening following V’s “racist” alignment with Coca-Cola, accused on multiple fronts of not only working in Israeli-occupied territories but also, by extension, financing the war.
Smaller Waves, Darker Past
There has also been a smaller criticism wave in 2023 surrounding some of the members’ brand choices. Taehyung, in particular, came under fire last year over an innocent image of McDonald’s fries he posted on his V app, which, quite coincidentally, is also the favorite fast-food brand of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
It was not the first time this happened. In 2016, BigHit Entertainment, BTS’s former agency, faced severe backlash following one of its members — Taeyang — K-Pop promotional posters, which depicted what was seen as the boy band endorsing Israeli products.
Truth is, what V is doing right now by becoming Coca-Cola Korea’s latest ambassador is not just a bad look —it is seen by many ARMYs as a very clear step away from BTS’ legacy of activism, sincerity, and good-faith fight for the rights of many.
Coca-Cola Controversy
On a related note, the news of V’s recent “deal with the devil” is coming as the latest development in the long and sordid history of Coca-Cola products in the West Bank, Gaza, and the Syrian Golan Heights, where many Palestinians were driven out of their homes following a British-supported Zionist-led invasion.
In 2024 alone, Coca-Cola was the subject of major outrage for having released an advert in Bangladesh denying that the company had any official association or ties with Israel. Activists shot down these claims by linking Coca-Cola Israel in a report by WhoProfits, a research center dedicated to exposing business involvement in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, to various illegal settlements.
According to WhoProfits’ report, Coca-Cola Israel has a factory in the Atarot Settlement Industrial Zone, which is classified as illegal under international law. Additionally, the company’s Tabor Winery in the West Bank illegally imports grapes from both the occupied West Bank and the Syrian Golan Heights.
These past claims have made the company one of BDS’s most sought-after boycotts. Its complicity has always been a major theme for pro-Palestine activists calling for sanctions to end the humanitarian crisis, with V’s announcement only stoking the fire.
ARMY Backlash
The target, as you may have guessed, is Taehyung. And in a matter of hours, international ARMYs (BTS’ fanbase) have been leading the charge in global calls for boycotting Coca-Cola products and cancelling V.
Boycotting or “educating” V was not the only goal in mind for international ARMYs, and many pointed out that BTS as a whole needed to put more pressure on the situation with their massive platform.
In various platforms where the campaign is being waged, messages like these continue to trend among the fandom and various other social media platforms.
“Dear Taehyung BTS, Coca Cola has been operating on the stolen land of the Palestinians, some of whom are your ARMY. Please don’t work with and promote its products. Please educate yourself. Cancel the endorsement and stand with humanity. #cancelcocacola #boycottCocaCola #boycottCoke #boycottKORCocaCola”
Fans on Twitter are also particularly eager to share their disgust over the Korean artist’s move. And in a matter of hours, the announcement has reached trending status on the platform.
