ILLIT Revealed Their New Album at a Concert — and the Internet Immediately Accused Them of Copying BLACKPINK’s Logo

K-pop’s most controversy-prone group just dropped their biggest announcement yet — and within hours, the plagiarism accusations were flying again. This time it wasn’t NewJeans in the frame. It was BLACKPINK.

ILLIT’s MAMIHLAPINATAPAI — Fast Facts

What Happened?

On March 15, a brief teaser shown during ILLIT’s PRESS START concert at Ticketlink Live Arena revealed the title of the group’s upcoming fourth mini-album, MAMIHLAPINATAPAI. The words appeared in bold text placed inside a rectangular frame. Simple enough — until concert footage started spreading on social media.

Many viewers believe that ILLIT’s album name design immediately reminded them of the characteristic framed logo design of the famous girl group BLACKPINK. IMDb Within hours, posts flooded X and online forums, with fans pointing out the visual similarity between the white-text-in-rectangle teaser and BLACKPINK’s iconic logo branding that has accompanied the YG quartet for nearly a decade.

Both Sides of the Debate

Those calling it plagiarism were unequivocal. Many stated the design wasn’t just similar — it was identical, arguing the group had simply swapped the text inside BLACKPINK’s logo. IMDb

Defenders were equally vocal. Several viewers explained that lighting inside the venue likely changed how the colors looked in fan recordings — the frame appeared pink in some videos, but supporters said the actual display looked white on the concert screen. Others pointed out that bold text inside a rectangular border is simply a common graphic design choice with no exclusive ownership.

Many critics also blamed Belift Lab directly rather than the group — noting that ILLIT’s creative team should have been extra careful given the group’s existing plagiarism controversy history, yet seemingly chose a design that would provoke comparisons anyway. Wikipedia

The Bigger Picture — A Pattern of Controversy

This is far from the first time ILLIT has found itself in this position. A Seoul court ruling in February 2026 found that BELIFT LAB failed to provide sufficient evidence to refute claims of similarity between ILLIT and NewJeans, with the court noting that ILLIT’s debut performance had aspects that could be judged as similar. Rotten Tomatoes The BLACKPINK logo controversy arrived just weeks later — days after ILLIT’s choreography for “Not me” was accused of copying the bench-stage setup of NewJeans’ “Cookie.” IMDb

The album title itself is a word derived from the language of the South American Yaghan people Theviewersperspective — a genuinely unique and poetic choice. Learn more about the Yaghan origin of the word on the Wikipedia page for Mamihlapinatapai.

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