The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2026
A skincare brand's collab with a creator lasted one day before a customer revolt
Sidmool, a Korean skincare brand, launched a collab with creator Kwaja Seyeon — then halted sales and apologised within a day as customers quit its fan club.
Sidmool · 2026-04-21
What happened
Sidmool built a decade of trust selling low-priced natural-ingredient skincare to a loyal female customer base. On April 20, 2026, creator Kwaja Seyeon — a YouTube personality with roughly 300,000 subscribers who said she had approached the brand first — posted a promotional video for the brand.
The response was immediate and hostile. Customers asked whether anyone had vetted the model at all, said the brand's decade-old image had collapsed in a moment, and announced they would never buy again; some quit the official fan cafe they had belonged to for over ten years. The same day, Sidmool posted an apology on the cafe, stopped sales of the promoted set and deleted the related content.
On April 21 the brand issued an official statement: the collaboration was 'a judgment that did not meet the values the brand has pursued and the trust of customers'; reflecting customer opinion, it had immediately stopped selling the products and deleted the content, and would strengthen review of advertising and collaborations. The CEO separately said the company had focused so hard on product development that external marketing review had been neglected, and that the decision should have been checked more carefully before it was made.
The entire collaboration ran for about one day between announcement and withdrawal.
Why it happened
- The brand's whole equity was trust built over ten years, and the collaboration put that single asset on the line for one promotional video.
- Vetting failed at the decision point: the CEO admitted marketing review had been neglected because the company focused on product development.
- The customers' reaction was not a boycott campaign but a direct withdrawal — quitting a fan club after ten years is a stronger signal than a hashtag.
- The reversal itself was the cost: stop sales, delete content and apologise within 24 hours, confirming to the base that the brand had misjudged them.
The lesson
A trust-based brand cannot rent its name to a creator its customers reject. Sidmool's decade of loyalty collapsed in a day because the collab skipped marketing review — customers quit, sales stopped.
Aftermath
Sidmool stopped sales of the promoted set, deleted the collaboration content and apologised on its official cafe on April 20, 2026, the day the video appeared. On April 21 it issued a formal statement calling the collaboration a misjudgment that failed the brand's values and customer trust, and promising stronger review of future advertising and collaborations. The CEO told media the company had focused on product development at the expense of external marketing review, admitted the decision should have been checked more carefully, and said the same mistake would not be repeated.
Sources
- TV Report — Sidmool official statement: collab with Kwaja Seyeon halted, content deleted, apology
- Wikitree — Sidmool CEO: 'deeply reflecting', model withdrawn one day after hiring
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