The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) is an office under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and is in-charge of fostering South Korea's tourism by mainly disseminating travel information.
Last June, KTO converged with innovative technology as it pioneered a new organization ambassador that would help the office further achieve its visions. Proving what is impossible, Lizzie Yeo, the first virtual model of the Korea Tourism Organization was born. According to media reports, to bring Lizzie Yeo to life, the organization spent around $500,000 or 800 million KRW.
To provide a context, virtual humans are created by computers. This human simulation garnered more progress and popularity credit to the streaming culture, especially VTubers.
However, despite reflecting innovative technology's capabilities, netizens observed that Lizzie Yeo resembles THIS artist from SM Entertainment.
Could you guess the artist?
Lizzie Yeo's visual similarities to ...
Lizzie Yeo, functioning as KTO's virtual ambassador and a quite popular virtual influencer, is currently receiving backlash for her visual similarities to Red Velvet Irene.
However, some netizens have commented that if the organization is eyeing to duplicate Irene's visuals, the organization could have at least appointed her as the tourism model.
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Above these public comments, the Culture, Sports, and Tourism Committee has also extended its criticism of the virtual model. Supplementarily, the committee upholds the public's sentiment that the model possesses almost the same facial features as the K-pop idol, Irene, and singer-actress Kwon Nara.
The committee also acknowledged that the virtual character is establishing "unrealistic expectations of beauty" among the MZ generation.
As of the moment, SM Entertainment has yet to release a statement in reply to this issue.
What's your opinion regarding the virtual ambassador and influencer of KTO? Do you think the resemblances are just coincidence?
KpopStarz own this article.
Sophia Carson authored this article.
