People may have known Pledis Entertainment for its questionable actions towards its talents. A while ago, the agency was involved in a bullying scandal towards boy group SEVENTEEN. Now, Pledis Entertainment sparks another controversy for allegedly rooting for a trainee in "Produce 101" Season 2 contestant, Brand New Music, instead of supporting the group under Pledis Entertainment itself, NU'EST.
On May 2016, NU'EST fans filed their complaints to Pledis Entertainment after they found out that the agency had treated the boy group poorly. According to fans, Pledis Entertainment didn't take the promotional matters seriously. Often times, they showed a lack of support to NU'EST and didn't even protect its talents' privacy. Recently, the agency has caused outrages from NU'EST fans after the CEO of Pledis showed his support for Brand New Music Trainees.
According to Allkpop, the label CEO runs an Instagram account @pledis_boss where he usually posts updates and photos of Pledis Entertainment artists. Recently, one fan noticed that the CEO had pressed Like button to one of Brand New Music photos, which is pretty ironic since the label has long been known for neglecting its own artists. As a result of the Like button scandal, fans flooded the @pledis_boss account with comments showing support for NU'EST.
The rumor of Pledis Entertainment being irresponsible towards its artists turned out to be true when NU'EST members opened up that the label thinks them as a failure. Meanwhile, Kahi also indicated that Pledis Entertainment has indeed treated its artists poorly. On the first episode of "Produce 101" Season 2 aired on April 7, Kahi couldn't help to hold back her tears as she watched NU'EST members on the show. Kahi cried because she felt so bad for the boys of NU'EST and thought that the group has suffered enough under Pledis Entertainment.
NU'EST made its debut back in 2012. However, the group didn't gain much success so they decided to halt all of the activities to participate in the competition.
