25-year-old Japanese actress Mei Nagano was exposed by Weekly Bunshun on Wednesday (April 4) for being in an illicit love triangle. One of the lovers was 23-year-old married actor Kei Tanaka, and the other was 40-year-old Korean star Kim Woo-jun who came to Japan to develop his career. Although Mei Nagano's agency denied it, her fresh image has been greatly affected. Mei Nagano is the Japanese brand ambassador of luxury brand PRADA, which led netizens to jokingly say, "Is the PRADA curse +26 again?"
The last PRADA spokesperson who got into trouble was a popular South Korean actor Kim Soo HyunHe was involved in a scandal involving underage dating with the late actress Kim Sae-ron, and was cut off from the brand after only three months of endorsement.
It is understood that PRADA has had more than 10 "collapsed" spokespersons over the years, including Taiwanese actor Kai Ko in 2014, Chinese rapper PGone in 2017, Chinese actor Zheng Shuang and actor Kris Wu in 2021, and Chun Xia and Li Yifeng in 2022. All of them were listed as "bad artists" and banned by China due to drug use, adultery, tax evasion, surrogacy and abandonment, sexual crimes, prostitution and sensitive political issues.
In 2020, Chanyeol, a member of the Korean group EXO, and Irene of Red Velvet, who also collaborated with PRADA, were successively exposed to rumors of cheating and workplace bullying. Chinese actor Cai Xukun also broke out in a scandal of having an illegitimate child in 2023, which damaged his image as an endorsement.
