For anyone who’s dreaming of being discovered, the story of almost-L’Oreal-model Axelle Despiegelaere is neither a fairytale nor a horror film. It’s a parable.
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It might not have been every young girl’s dream come true, but for most 17-year-olds being “discovered” by an iconic brand like L’Oreal is the stuff of fairytales. Right now the story probably feels more like a nightmare for Axelle Despiegelaere.
Dream or nightmare, her story holds a lesson for us all.
Axelle wasn’t the first teen beauty to be hated on for a love of killing wild things. 19-year-old Kendall Jones’ pictures with dead leopards and lions really got some people riled up. Of course, it’s not just trophy hunting teens that make the news either, Huffington Post Canada ran a story earlier this year on “canned hunts” that featured female hunters.
But Axelle is probably the first to lose a modeling contract because of her love of the hunt.
She was photographed while cheering for her team during the World Cup and the photos became a sensation. She was soon being called the “most beautiful fan” and almost immediately L’Oreal came calling.
While the news reports were that Axelle had been offered a modeling contract, the French cosmetics company insists that she was never hired as a spokesperson for the brand, but that they only collaborated with her to produce a video for social media use in Belgium. The video was, indeed, produced and posted, and L’Oreal says that is the end of the relationship.
The cosmetics giant is also not confirming the suspicions (we might even say “assumptions”) that their decision has to do with a picture that the newly anointed celebrity posted to her newly created Facebook Fan Page, but they did reiterate their hard-won stance on animal cruelty.
So what do you think? Is the outrage (and subsequent, if officially unrelated end of her modeling gig) just because she’s young, pretty, and female?
It’s likely that people in general are far more offended by pictures of women with big game kills. But that’s not why this young lady should have known that posting a picture with her kill would likely kill the deal.
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No company, of any size, can afford to compromise a position that has cost 30 years and a complete change of infrastructure to accomplish, especially not for an untried and untrained model.
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When you value a relationship you make it your business to know what the other party values.
L’Oreal has taken a great deal of heat over the years for their practice of testing on animals. According to an official statement on their site, they have spent the last 30 years working toward a time when they can say they do not test on animals, nor do they delegate testing to others. That time came as recently as March, 2013 and they’ve since made that statement part of their value proposition.
Having a publicly recognized relationship with anyone who glibly posts a picture that would make any animal-lover cringe isn’t on-brand. So it just isn’t on at all. No company, of any size, can afford to compromise a position that has cost 30 years and a complete change of infrastructure to accomplish, especially not for an untried and untrained model.
Axelle may or may not have learned anything from this experience. And she may very well turn the notoriety into something even more fairytalelandish.
But for anyone who’s dreaming of being discovered, or anyone who is working hard to have the opportunity to represent any company, this is neither a fairytale nor a horror film. It’s a parable.
The “moral of the story” might be: Know who you’re working for. Know what they stand for, what is important to their brand, and what is important to their public. If you can’t align with their values, skip the hypocrisy and just say no. Professionals who represent brands, embody the brands.
Otherwise, you’re just another pretty face in the crowd.
Photos: www.facebook.com/Axelle.Despiegelaere.Official