NCT Live Stream Incident Highlights SM Entertainment’s Response to Backlash Over Mark’s Boycotted Advertisement

Mark is facing backlash over his brand deal with McDonald’s — a brand now caught in a Palestine boycott storm. The controversy began earlier this month when Mark announced a partnership with McDonald’s. Fans quickly reacted, upset about McDonald’s being targeted for supporting Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

A McDonald’s franchise owner in Israel declared they would provide free meals to IDF soldiers and Israeli hospitals. According to Newsweek, five stores donated over 100,000 meals.

While McDonald’s isn’t officially on the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) Movement’s list, they’ve added it as an encouraged boycott target. Fans started pressuring Mark and his company to drop the deal — but no response came.

Fans pushed harder when NCT DREAM went live after a concert. Renjun started talking about Mark’s McDonald’s ad but quickly stopped. He looked behind the camera, covered his mouth, and said he couldn’t talk about it. Other members also glanced away uneasily.

Fans believe SM Entertainment and staff are blocking any talk about the collab. This has sparked fresh anger online.

lmao it became so awkward after renjun said something about the mark mcd collab, it looked like the staffs were telling him not to talk about it yeah they knew the fans are against the collab but still said nothing or address it
— caca (@hyookj)

Watching the Dreamies laugh about the McD collab like it’s a joke. You wanna bet at least Mark, Jeno, and Jaemin are aware of the issue. And how ‘pure’ do you think Renjun, Jisung, Chenle, and Haechan are for not knowing about the boycott at all?
— bayangan (@bobougainvillea)

the bigger problem here is sm and their staff are obviously aware of backlash and know that it’s wrong to collab with those brands, but they literally don’t care and just stop a member from mentioning it, as if without mentioning it doesn’t exist https://t.co/VveBaoE41P
— (@daylight3to3)

Mark and NCT are losing thousands of followers amid this active boycott. Fans are waiting to see if SM will address the issue or keep ignoring the backlash.