‘Little Women’ TV Show Accused Of Ripping Off Beauty Brand’s Poster Design
By Mikelle Leow, 07 Sep 2022
A teaser poster for a South Korean drama series called Little Women is facing not-so-little heat for being uncannily similar to artwork published by Japanese beauty giant Shiseido back in 2016.
tvN, the television network that’s airing the show, has somewhat apologized for the suspected plagiarism.
With South Korea’s entertainment industry drawing an international audience, the chances of someone spotting similar imagery elsewhere are definitely higher. This has been the undoing of the show, which has been called out for apparently appropriating Shiseido’s poster of four women walking across a pale blue platform.
South Korea’s Little Women, a series loosely based on Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 coming-of-age novel, seemingly condenses the design to reveal the show’s three leading sisters, with their long shadows more pronounced than the original. The blue might just be a tad deeper, but the composition is nearly identical, nonetheless.
#LittleWomen foi acusado de plágio do pôster da marca de cosméticos SHISEIDO.
— Doramas Brasil (@doramabra) September 6, 2022
O produtor disse: — “O pôster teaser com o conceito de 3 irmãs e caminhando em direção a um lugar brilhante. É a criação da empresa responsável pelo design depois de revisar vários trabalhos.” pic.twitter.com/wUHAxJwKsc
As per local news outlet E-Daily, tvN has released a statement addressing the lookalike poster designs. The network defends that it only briefed the design studio to depict the three sisters “walking toward the light with their shadows behind them,” and when the designers got back with some concepts, it picked the best one.
Although the broadcaster has not openly admitted to copying Shiseido’s poster, it does insinuate that there are similarities by promising to do better and “pay closer attention” to details in future.