Cosmo cancelled Racist Bachelor Contestant’s Cover
This past Monday night’s episode of “The Bachelor ” had the contestants modeling for a Cosmopolitan magazine photoshoot in Costa Rica. The winner of the group date with bachelor, Peter Webber, was to be rewarded with Cosmopolitan’s March 2020 cover. Victoria Fuller was announced the winner.
Minutes after this scene of aired, Cosmo’s editor Jessica Pels, posted saying that they would not publish the cover with Victoria Fuller, due to an ad campaign in which she modeled “White Lives Matter attire.”
“Unequivocally, the White Lives Matter movement does not reflect the values of the Cosmo brand” Pels wrote. “We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, and any cause that fights to end injustices for people of color.”
Photos had surfaced of Victoria posing in a “White Lives Matter” hat along with an altered version of a Confederate flag.
Representatives for ABC and “The Bachelor” did not comment.
This is really, really bad coverage for ABC. ABC needs to make a comment saying they do not stand for the White Lives Matter movement as soon as possible. As of right now they have not made any comments. They may as well say that they do in fact stand for values of the White Lives Matter movement.
Cosmo’s message is that the White Lives Matter movement does not reflect the values of the Cosmo brand. They nipped any association with this is the butt.
The Bachelor and Cosmo have an audience of 18-34 year old females. However, the New York Times, Television section is probably not going to reach the same audience. Articles exposing this should be on outlets more targeted to 18-34 year old females.
The public is appalled with Victoria, and ABC. She is being called a racist all over social media. ABC has now got themselves wrapped up in a racism scandal.
ABC’s PR people need to be coming out with a statement as soon as possible. And in the future, ABC should be doing background checks on their Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants. To perceive a positive message to the public, all contestants should be clean. This scandal could have been avoided if ABC’s people found Victoria’s old pictures before the public did. Cosmo did the right thing by not publishing a cover of Victoria, and by putting out a statement as soon as the episode aired.
This story is media driven since the photos of Victoria modeling White Lives Matter apparel was found on instagram and shared via the media. Cosmo’s PR generated idea to not publish the cover of Victoria was very smart. Cosmo has avoided allegations before they could even come up.
New York Times Article by Nancy Coleman
Date: Feb 4 2020
“Cosmopolitan Changes Course on ‘Bachelor’ Contestant Cover”
Television Section
Company/Business involved: Cosmopolitan, ABC’s The Bachelor