It hasn’t been a good week for pretty white women who take pictures next to dead animals.
Photogenic Belgian teen Axelle Despiegelaere was offered a contract with L’Oreal after pictures of her cheering blondely for her country’s World Cup soccer team went viral, and on Tuesday, the French company released a promotional “hair tutorial” video starring Despiegelaere that has already garnered close to 2 million views.
Except, it turns out that Axelle Despiegelaere has a checkered social media history that L’Oreal, a company that has sworn off animal testing, might not want to associate with.
After some folks took notice — including Aly Raisman, captain of the gold medal-winning 2012 US Women’s Olympic gymastics team — Despieg(etc) apologized, saying it was a joke. No word on whether the killing of the hunting trophy was also a joke, done, like, in a funny way.
In response to media inquiries, L’Oreal succinctly said that the Belgian had “completed” her association with the company, without elaborating on whether the model’s dead animal photo and America murder joke had anything to do with it. They did, however, add that the company “no longer tests on animals, anywhere in the world, and does not delegate this task to others.”
Axelle Despiegelaere, we hardly knew thee (and we definitely didn’t commit the spelling of your nightmare last name to memory. One Cara Delevingne is enough, fashion.)