Stray Kids is currently making headlines across the K-pop community for their highly anticipated comeback "ATE," which will be released on July 19, at 1 p.m. KST.
Adding to the anticipation, the group followed up an announcement on June 20, when they posted a timetable for their comeback. Many fans were excited to receive an insight into Stray Kids' activities this 2024. However, some weren't fond of the vending machine timetable.
The timetable eventually generated a community post, where netizens compared the concept to NCT Dream's itinerary for "ISTJ."
"This was the timetable Stray Kids released today"
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"This was NCT Dream's timetable released in 2023."
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Internet users began to express their shock over the concept similarities. They pointed out how the scheduler contained the same gimmick, with the "drink prices" representing the dates. Meanwhile, some shook their heads at the group's planning team. Read their reactions below:
"It's literally similar."
"Totally the same."
"Wow, I remember thinking how novel it was when NCT Dream released theirs."
"It's the same. Only the design of the vending machine is different, but even down to the fact that the prices are shown as dates."
"Is that a free source?"
"This is so obvious. Why would they do that?"
"Where's the shame from Stray Kids' planning team?"
"It just looks like a black and white version of NCT DREAM's one
"Why?"
"That's just copy pasted, even the fonts are the same, and the fact that it looks like a custom vending machine and the locations are all the same too."
On the other hand, international netizens threaded on the concept's originality and conveyed that having a vending machine as a timetable concept was already random in the first place. On platform X (Twitter), some simply emphasized the similarities.
"Lmao did they choose to make it black and white so that it doesn't look similar anymore?"
"I mean, yeah. It's too similar for how random an idea it is in the first place. If it was something common like a literal road map then it'd pass, but this is too similar."
"The concept isn't even pretty, cool, or creative looking. they could have done a million other things why ugly a** vending machine?"
"They both have July 7 as date for the drink price lol."
