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'Cookie': ADOR 'gaslights' fans by saying sexual song for minor group NewJeans is about burning CDs

The label says that native English speakers had worked on the 'Cookie' lyrics with wholesome intentions

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA: While new girl group NewJeans is slowly taking over K-pop with hits after hits including ‘Attention’ and ‘Hype Boy’, they are also surrounded by controversies. First, their director Min HeeJin was accused of sexualising the girls who are all minors with one member being as young as 14. Then their fourth lead single ‘Cookie’ was slammed for having sexual lyrics. And while the label ADOR is trying to do damage control, fans are not buying it.

While ‘Cookie’ received love in South Korea, English-speaking fans immediately pointed out the suggestive innuendos in the lyrics and the fact that the word ‘cookie’ is a very popular urban slang for female genitals. On the day of their debut, ADOR indirectly tried to salvage the situation with NewJeans saying ‘Cookie’ was a fan song. With translators pointing out the problem, even Korean netizens started slamming the label for giving a sexual song to a group with underage members.

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'Cookie’ is a fan song

Well, on Saturday, August 27, ADOR wrote a lengthy letter hoping to clear all misunderstandings regarding 'Cookie' which they claimed was part of a story they were telling through songs. NewJeans’ label said, "ADOR wanted to make the album 'New Jeans' an expression of the members’ innocent elegance and their pure, effortless charm.” They apologized for the controversy and said that it had been interpreted differently from their intentions. They stuck to the reasoning that it was a fan song as "the song was made specially for all the fans…and because it shows how much confidence we have in the musical direction the group is taking."

Baking cookies is compared to burning CDs

The label went on, “The song revolves around the paired idea of burning CDs and baking cookies, which share the same conceptual verb in Korean. When you reach for dessert instead, you’re looking for something more exciting than an everyday meal. ’Cookie’ has the confidence to do just that while remaining humble enough to call itself a dessert. The music video opens with a cookie rolling in and ends with a CD rolling out. We took this symbolism one step beyond that and brought it to life with a CD player bag to carry the album that specifically echoes the shape of a cookie."

ADOR consulted professionals

NewJeans' label said, "The ADOR team didn’t take any issue with the lyrics to ‘Cookie’ when we were making the album because our vision for original and wholesome music was crystal clear to us. Slang terms aren’t taught in school and not everyone is familiar with them. It’s impossible for people to be familiar with every idiom and offensive term out there, and predicting their reception around the world is an even more challenging task. We consulted with English professors, professional interpreters, translators, and native speakers about this issue, who suggested it isn’t a commonplace interpretation and one they had to look up as they were unfamiliar with it themselves."

They added, "The common thread in all of their opinions was that it’s very problematic to put total confidence into any one interpretation, that a person’s understanding relies on a mix of objective facts and personal experience, and that this must all be considered together in a wider context. They added that the word cookie is also not a commonly used slang term for anything sexual. The lyrics to ‘Cookie’ were written by two native English speakers: a Korean woman and a Swedish woman in their 30s. The song was also translated by a bilingual Korean woman.”

‘Gaslighting 101’

Some fans understood ADOR’s explanation, as one said, "The people who are still insisting on the fact that there's no way they didn't know about it, you guys just want to push your narratives until the end. How are they supposed to know every US slangs used.” Another said, "ADOR putting all the kpop stans with their fake concerns back to their place, we love to see it." One wrote, "Ador is really the best company out there. Their explanation is very well written and organised, states every single details and cleared it with logic. Despite being a new company, they r doing great. Belift should learn something from this label."

Others still think they should have been careful and avoided words and lyrics that could even have the slightest of sexual subtext. One Knetz user asked, "If you look at the world of pop culture, the interpretation of the audience is just as important as the interpretation of the original creator. When you look at this issue, the majority of the opinions stated something that was the complete opposite of what the original creator intended, so doesn't that mean that it's fair to assume that this is actually the right interpretation? And the fact that they included sentences like 'come and take a lookie','if you want it, you can get it', it's blatant lyrics with innuendos.”

Another asked, “But where in the lyrics am I actually supposed to understand that they were 'burning CDs'? I don't get it.” One added, “That company could teach a class on gaslighting.” One tweeted, “Not ador gaslighting native and bilingual english speakers.” Another commented, “Gaslighting 101...professional translators are the ones making the videos about it in Korean. If regular people look at the lyrics and immediately can see the subtext don't BS like it isn't an innuendo.” One added, “I am absolutely astounded that they found a bunch of native English speakers who are clearly too stupid to read between the lines, it's not just the word cookie that is bad, it's all of the phrases surrounding it that make it sound so dirty. You could replace cookie with any word, and it would still sound dirty.”