As late as Dec 2023 IU was considered to be the most favored advertisement model in all of Korea
And she had the legendary record of losing not one of her endorsements in the years 2020-2024. She had quit a local pizza brand for Domino's, and that is the only endorsement of hers which had ended , and on her own accord.
But she loses the commercial for Samdasoo, a major water brand in Korea, to Lim Youngwoong since the advertiser judged Lim Youngwoong has more value.
At the beginning of this live perf of "Eight", she drinks a bottle of water.
That bottle is a Samdasoo, the brand she was promoting.
Now she is no longer the model of that she will have to delete the first part of this video.
She now acts desperate, releasing quite a few clips and showing up in youtube shows of Park Myungsoo. Soon Bibi will show up there too and Park Myungsoo will treat Bibi like she is the next new thing.
Once an act is shown to be vulnerable to others, no one fears the act and everyone will begin to gang up on that act, like what happened to SNSD after IU defeated it in late 2011-early 2012.
I have watched KPop quite a long time. These show hosts are quite quick changing their faces. If they think someone is losing their touch they are very, very quick dropping stars, which leads such stars to stop showing up.
2024 will see further crumbling of IU's Empire, with some key deals taken by Bibi, and others will be very happy to jump into the prey.
That should be a lesson to all other acts - domination is always fleeting and once a domination is lost, it can crumble quite rapidly.
