"When XX fandom donates their albums to a public institution"
News of donations are always warm. Donations in kind for “idol albums” are increasing towards various public institutions such as local ward offices, blood donation organizations, and organizations sponsoring the underprivileged, etc. There are also inquiries from idol fans asking how to donate on large portal sites. Why did these heartwarming donations in the form of distributing idol albums that one likes start leaving a bitter aftertaste?
As we follow the origin of album donations, we encounter the suspicion of the fans doing “Sajaegi”.
For fans, buying an album in bulk is a message of support for the singer. The sales record of the first album soon leads to media articles, which greatly aids the singer's position and success.
(People asking about how they can donate idol albums)
There are also people opposing this saying 'If people don't want to receive them, just stop, don't disregard the pure/innocent meaning behind donating.' Yet fans claim that they're killing 2 birds with 1 stone by donating albums to people who can't afford to buy them. In the midst of all, the public organizations are finding it difficult to find ways to discard all these albums too. A netizen who is working at a welfare center said, “Please do not donate albums. All kinds of idol albums are piled up in the warehouse of the welfare center. There should be a limit to distributing them.”
https://sports.khan.co.kr/news/sk_index.html?art_id=201910131426003&sec_id=540101
A pile of idol albums found in the parking lot of Mapo-gu Office - The items donated to Mapo Youth Center were discarded
Admin / 2020.07.23
[...]
According to the center's explanation, the albums accumulated in the underground parking lot were donated by fan clubs or overseas fans, and were temporarily stored in the center, not purchased using public funds.
"Actually throwing them away?".... Incheon Namdong-gu receiving donations of "weird" idol CDs"
Incheon Namdong-gu recently received 3,500 CDs of idol singers' latest albums from a local volunteer organization asking them to use them for children from low-income families.
The amount is worth 40 million won at the market price, and the idol fan club donated it to a volunteer organization.
They distributed the CD to local children's facilities such as youth shelters, and 26 copies were also delivered to the local children's center where Ahn Hye-jin (12, pseudonym) attends.
But there is something strange.
When you look at the CD, one side of the wrapper is cut off. It wasn't broken by a mistake in the delivery process, but it was cut straight as if using a knife.
In particular, there was no photocard of idol singers that should have one for each CD.
Hyejin explained, "If I had a photo card, I would have chosen a male idol (boy idol) CD."
She said, "I wanted to have it, but I couldn't afford it. There are times when a CD that I couldn't buy comes in as a gift, but I don't always have a photo card. I'm grateful, but I don't feel very good."
An official from a local children's center in Incheon also said, "Many CD donations come in through the district office or other organizations in a year," and "Most of them overlap with the timing of the release of new songs by idol singers."
Regarding this, a former official of an idol fan club said, "Avid fans buy dozens of CDs to collect photo cards or win a fan signing event."
They're writing 'album donation' when in fact it's 'discarding waste'.
They're calling it a "donation" when in fact they're just collecting fansign applications and photo cards and end up handing hundreds to thousands of albums to institutions.
In the end, these institutions struggle dealing with them and need to spend money to discard them.
Even if it is passed on to teenagers with lower income families,
From the point of view of the recipient, they don't receive any photo cards. The intention is too transparent and they definitely don't feel happy with these products.
1. I bet they'll get too much of a reality slap if they were the ones who had to throw away thousands of albums from their own biases
2. They can't distinguish trash from donations
3. These fans themselves will only keep one or two copies and it's too much of a pain in the ass for them to keep so they're dumping them to other people instead, so I can't understand people asking "What's the problem?" here... Do they not understand that people won't be happy receiving an album from an idol they don't even care about?
4. This isn't an issue that only revolves around fandoms, isn't this the issue of the way companies are doing marketing? They're inciting people to buy stuff they don't actually need
5. This has been an issue for how long already and they still haven't solved it?
6. It's already weird that you have to buy 100-200 albums to attend a fansign, but it's clear that this is done just to attend fansigns...
They're basically donating those albums to institution as a "performance prop" and it's so bizarre;;;;
I've always participated in donations for my bias idols, but even when I participated in them, I've always thought that they were so weird...
7. If you're not a fan of an idol, receiving their goods is probably the most useless thing ever
8. In small quantities, it's cute and refreshing, but when it's in large quantities, it's just bizarre
9. I'm an idol's fan but this is freaking a turn off. Do they think that people don't know why we're donating these albums? On top of that, they're removing the photo cards inside and they're calling it a donation, I'm so embarrassed for them...
10. This is the same as throwing out your trash, what a burden for other people...
