Mei Nagano Faces Allegations Post Prada Deal ( Photo Credit – Instagram )
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Every luxury brand appoints celebrities to represent and become the brand ambassadors. Prada, one of the famous luxury fashion brands, also follows the same technique. It also has a host of celebrities lined up to represent them. However, it seems there’s a ‘curse’ that has affected many artists who are Asian and had a connection to the brand. So, what is this ‘Prada Curse’?
For those who don’t know, many Asian artists from across the world who joined the brand Prada as their ambassadors faced career-shaking scandals and allegations. There have been many instances with celebs like EXO’s Chanyeol, Kim Soo-Hyun, and now the Japanese actress Mei Nagano has also faced the same thing. Scroll ahead to find out who has suffered from it.
Mei Nagano
Popular Japanese actress Mei Nagano, who has been a brand ambassador for Prada for many years, sparked the ‘Prada Curse’ discussion once again as she gets embroiled in an affair controversy. As per reports, she was recently accused of dating a married man named Kei Tana, who also has two children. On the other hand, the report further claimed she was two-timing with another Korean actor, Kim Mu-Jun, who was her co-star in the drama, Caster. Although Prada hasn’t announced that they terminated the contract with her, they can quietly do so with the growing scandal.
South Korean actor Kim Soo-Hyun had recently become Prada’s brand ambassador in December 2024. Within months, he got dragged into a dating scandal with Kim Sae-Ron. Apparently, as per speculations and allegations, the actor was in a relationship with Bloodhounds actress when she was a minor, and this had sparked a controversy, leading to contract termination with the brand. Many other brands have also dropped the actor.
Red Velvet’s Irene
In 2020, Irene became the brand ambassador for Prada, and in the same year, she was slammed by netizens over her poor attitude controversy. During that time, she received a lot of hatred and negative comments. However, it seems that the Red Velvet member’s contract with Prada has expired as she was not mentioned in the brand afterwards.
Zheng Shuang
Chinese actress Zheng Shuang rose to fame with her performance in the Meteor Shower. Because of her successful career run, she even got an opportunity to represent a luxury brand like Prada. But soon her career got tarnished when she was allegedly accused of a surrogacy scandal. As per the reports, she abandoned her children born through surrogacy in America after breaking up with her boyfriend. She was also accused of a tax evasion scandal. However, after the surrogacy controversy started to spread like wildfire, Prada had terminated their contract with her.
EXO’s Chanyeol
While EXO’s Chanyeol was Prada’s ambassador, he was accused of cheating on his girlfriend with 10 other girls throughout their relationship. Though it was not proved, the scandal stirred up the internet against him, and the idol received a lot of negative comments from netizens. However, there were no reports of Prada officially dropping him from the contract.
Li Yifeng
Chinese actor Li Yifeng was quite popular because of his charming looks and acting skills. He had a successful career run with ranking 9th on the Forbes China Celebrity List in 2015. However, while he was in contract with Prada as its brand ambassador, the actor got embroiled in a controversy. In 2022, his career hit a rough patch after he was detained by police for soliciting prostitution. He had confessed his guilt. Soon, he was dropped from the brand as they terminated their contract.
Kai Ko
Another Asian artist, Taiwanese actor Kai Ko, who was signed to become Prada’s face, got caught in a marijuana case in 2014. Although he never could return to the luxury brand as their ambassador, his career continued even after the scandal, with many projects being made under his name. He now has a quite successful career.
Cai Xu Kun
Popular musician, Chinese star Cai Xu Kun, gained popularity after debuting in the idol group Nine Percent, and won millions of hearts with his versatility. Since then, he has been one of the top stars. However, in 2023, he got entangled in a scandal after he was accused of getting a woman pregnant and paying her after the abortion. The woman had claimed that the idol’s mother had even gotten a private detective to trail her. Later, Cai Xu Kun admitted that he was in a relationship with the woman, but the allegations were false, and it was all consensual. However, as the controversy sparked, his ambassadorship with Prada ended. In 2024, he was signed by another luxury brand, Versace.
Although many other celebs still have a good working relationship with Prada but we can’t really ignore these back-to-back instances that hint at some kind of curse. What do you think?
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