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Song Joong-ki will no longer appear in Vivo ads

  • Published : Aug 9, 2016 - 15:15
  • Updated : Aug 9, 2016 - 15:15

Chinese smartphone firm Vivo is dropping Korean actor Song Joong-ki from its advertisements, China Daily reported Sunday.
Song had been featured in the company’s commercials since May.

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(Wikimedia)
Vivo had signed a contract to pay Song more than 22 million yuan ($3.3 million) a year.

It had said that Song would help attract young consumers, as he is popular among them due to the KBS drama “Descendants of the Sun,” which aired from February to April.

Vivo said that it will still pay Song all the fees owed to him, as the breach of contract is not due to any fault of Song. The abrupt termination of the contract is ascribed to China's ban on Korean celebrities' activities in China, as a means of retaliation for South Korea's deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), an anti-missile defense system that South Korea and the United States are pushing ahead with in order to protect South Korea from North Korea's nuclear threats. However, China is worried that THAAD can be used to track Chinese military activities.

By Lee Ji-hae (jihlee@heraldcorp.com)

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