SM Entertainment, the agency of the all-girl band f(x), said the DOH didn’t have its permission to use the song for the infomercial.
According to a statement on their website, the song for the DOH’s infomercial was in fact plagiarized from f(x)’s own song “Rum Pum Pum Pum” which was on the group’s album last year. The agency added that it is already looking into the possible legal remedies.
The DOH meanwhile has not yet issued a comment on the matter, but will do so this week; according to Ivanhoe Escartin, the health agency’s director for the National Center For Health Promotion.
The controversial video, titled GaBo (a combo of “gaga”and “bobo,” which was uploaded by the DOH to its website on November 30 but was quickly taken down, shows a group of cheerleaders dancing to a song inside a gym. Voiceovers can then be heard calling teen girls and boys as “gaga” and “bobo” for failing to abstain from unprotected sex and thus ending up with an unwanted pregnancy. A male adult voice can also heard urging the teens to wait until they are ready.
DOH Acting Secretary Janette Garin then appears at the end of the song saying “A planned life is a good life.”
However, various sectors slammed the DOH video for being tactless and counter-productive. Many in the online community asked how calling teens idiots would make them listen. Among others, the National Youth Commission asked the health agency to delete the video as it did nothing but stigmatize and alienate the youth.
