Coming up to December is also the month that ARMYs and BTS witness Jin and V's birthdays. While V has his birthday at the end of the month, Jin's birthday is only about half a month away. Therefore, fans are very excited to prepare projects to wish him a happy birthday.
One of the biggest and most notable projects at the moment is that JINAIR airline will release boarding päṩṩes with Jin's photo and a theme designed for his birthday. Initially, fans were excitedly looking forward to this great project but soon, they were disappointed when they received a notice that HYBE had asked the airline to cancel it.
While the owner of this project expressed confusion and sadness at the complete cancellation of the plan, other fans were angry at HYBE's actions:
Idols' birthdays are always an occasion where fans spend a lot of time, effort and money to organize big projects to celebrate or promote that idol. When it comes to the movement of implementing projects, ARMYs seem to be the leaders with a series of impressive birthday projects.
This year, Jin's fanbase surprised fans around the world with a birthday project by partnering with airline JINAIR to issue boarding päṩṩes with Jin's face from the Yet to Come concert. in Busan. They designed boarding päṩṩes themed to celebrate Jin's birthday and JINAIR airline guests will be given one on his birthday.
With the large scale as well as the coincidence between Jin's name and the airline, fans are looking forward to this event. Some lucky fans even got their first boarding päṩṩes, which they described as "even more beautiful than in real life". It is predicted that many people will spend money to experience this exciting flight.
However, it seems that this project had not been active for long before it had to end because HYBE asked JINAIR to suspend this fan project. The project owner wished Jin a happy birthday and said: "It’s a complicated matter that leaves me stumped on what to say… due to HYBE’s request, we halted the fan support for the boarding päṩṩ and discarded all the tickets."
The reason why HYBE contacted JINAIR and asked to pause the advertisement was because of concerns about paid advertising. The company viewed the fan project as a corporate advertisement since one must buy a ticket from JINAIR to obtain the themed boarding päṩṩ.
KONI continued to explain: "I really don’t know what to say so my words keep circling around in thin air, and I couldn’t speak up easily…At first, I thought that there was an error in the issuing of the tickets temporarily, and I was waiting for it to be reopened, but currently, I’ve found out that HYBE made a request to the airline and advertisement agency to halt it. It seems like they felt that the advertisement’s influence was too big and thought that the airline would benefit off of it. Although we requested for them to see it as a fan support from the international fans that have continued to be a part of the idol fandom, rather than an advertisement for the airline, it seems like they are unable to accept it. But everyone else who has prepared this, including the jingerfan fanbase, has decided to humbly understand the company’s POV and accept their actions."
Therefore, the project owner had to accept this and look for alternative solutions. They also plan to compensate paying fans. KONI claimed that: "Currently, as the birthday is approaching, the jingerfanbase is taking measures to deal with the subsequent steps for current support, and at the same time, we are preparing birthday support in South ̾k̾o̾r̾e̾a at a respondent scale. We are also prepping the steps on how to deal with the participants and päṩṩengers of the flight. Please send your warm wishes of support to the fanbases…We have also heard that even though the tickets can’t be issued, the airline does not have any special steps to deal with the päṩṩengers. We feel sad and responsible for having promoted this as a part of the fan support. Although we are unable to soothe your sadness about your planned fun holiday, for the locals, if you wish, we will refund you in full with our own money. We will also send you gifts of condolences.
As I’m also preparing other personal birthday support, I will quickly accept and process the cases for the locals through a form after the birthday. For the participants and päṩṩengers in נαραи, Jin’s fanbase will deal with it after discussion about gifts of thanks and condolences. They will make an announcement after it has been decided.
All the fees for all the items will be undertaken by myself and the others through our personal funds. We feel so sad and distraught that we can’t say anything despite how sorry we feel. We hope you can generously understand everyone who has worked hard in this process."
While the project has been discontinued and seems unlikely to continue moving forward, ARMYs expressed anger that a great project for Jin's birthday was cancelled. Some feel this project is no different than idols’ birthday ads in magazines since you must also buy a magazine or when a Jimin fanbase had an aircraft decorated.
Fans were disappointed and expressed questions about HYBE's different attitude:
- That is unfortunate. thank you always for your hard work! It is such a beautiful project. One I am sure Jin is we well aware since company knows. Jin am sure appreciates of all your efforts too!
- hybe themselves cancelled a jin theme boarding päṩṩ as part of many jin bday projects for jin air päṩṩengers bcoz of demand theyre worried the airline would benefit too much lmao
- But how about the others project???
- Since u are bring jm into this, do u know that BTS and ARMY name are protected under trademark law Jin project : mentioned both BTS and Army Jimin project : JIMIN, CHINABAR, AND PJMS
- Btw no one is dragging jimin here, we are just saying since it was allowed for 1 member it should be allowed for jin too. Both deserve such projects!
- @HYBEOFFICIALtwt f u want Money just Released #TheAstronaut Vinyl.. Y would u put ur finger on Fan Events when u don't spend on our fave promo...
- Other members did the same project but hybe didn't stop them because hybe didn't interested in small amount of profit? ?
- I am very much interested in knowing that…if the other projects weren’t stopped, means they weren’t much of an impact, is this HYBE way of saying we seokjinnies are much more huge that made out to be?? JIN air you guys should at least let us know how much of an impact was it??
- I remember bgsht restricted 0ttogi to use j1n's face outside sk. Ohh the whole world was so ready for J1n ramen that time
- Just because HYBE had partnered JEJU AIR previously?!!! FOR GOODNESS SAKE, THIS IS ONLY A BIRTHDAY PROJECT FOR JIN! Get Jin to be the ambäṩṩador when he is discharged!
However, others pointed out that the boarding päṩṩ not only included Jin's name but also trademarked and copyrighted content, including “BTS” and “ARMY.” Many people also believe that the airline will gain more profit from sales than BTS or ARMY, so HYBE decided to cancel this project.
