You’ll Die When You See Jessica Alba’s Latest #Spon Fail | Betches
October 11, 2019I was minding my own business last night, watching old clips of The View and scrolling Instagram, when a hot tip popped up in my DMs. One of my Insta-BFFs Alex (@lexniko, she’s f*cking hilarious) sent me a side-by-side that almost made me fall out of my chair. It’s just…so stupid. Our beloved Jessica Alba, actress, model, and skin care mogul, made a hilarious mistake in her latest sponsored post, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.
Here’s the post in question:
If you can’t spot the issue, that’s because the issue isn’t anywhere in the actual photo. It’s just a normal ad for some probiotics, with Jessica posting in her kitchen with a nice array of products. Great natural lighting! She looks stunning! I might even buy some of the products! (I definitely won’t, but she doesn’t need to know that.) No, to spot the issue with this photo, we have to go back in time, all the way to 2018.
Enter: Kate Hudson. Last December, Kate announced that she was the latest brand ambassador for WW (formerly Weight Watchers). At the time, she had a two-month-old baby, so it made sense for her to share her post-baby journey with the WW audience. And of course, the partnership was launched with a beautiful photoshoot in Kate’s kitchen.
Except it wasn’t Kate’s kitchen. Look familiar? That’s because it’s the same f*cking kitchen that Jessica Alba is using for her probiotics spon. At the time Kate’s kitchen photoshoot came out, the pictures went mildly viral due to the absolutely insane arrangement of cutting boards behind her. Who has that many cutting boards?? Why are they so large?? How do you get one out without knocking over all the others? Truly so many questions, but Kate definitely doesn’t know the answers! She’s never cooked in that kitchen in her life!
It’s really no huge surprise that celebrities use studios or rented spaces to shoot some of their sponsored content, but this feels especially egregious. First, it’s an incredibly recognizable kitchen, especially with the slanted ceiling, exposed wood shelves, and once again, those wild cutting boards. But also, I feel like Kate Hudson and Jessica Alba must have a large amount of overlap in their audiences. They’re both 2000s actresses who have moved heavily into the lifestyle space, and their brands feel really similar. You’d think advertisers would want to be especially careful when planning these things. At least move the cutting boards!
Of course, this is far from the first time that a celebrity has made a careless error in posting sponsored content. This specific kitchen mixup reminded me of an instance with Melissa Joan Hart from last year. My girl Sabrina did some lunchmeat spon-con (bleak), and the company has two different brands. Instead of taking different photos for each one, Melissa posted the exact same photo, with the exact same food, and just switched out the placemats and packaging. You guys, it’s so bad.
Note: MJH posted these two photos BACK TO BACK on her feed. With the same caption! I have no idea who thought this was a good idea, but I still laugh every single time I look at these photos. Having worked with branded content, it’s honestly wild that the client approved this in the first place.
Another common issue that pops up with celebrity sponsored posts is the inability to figure out what to copy and paste. Basically, when you’re working with a brand, they’ll give you suggested copy to use for your caption, and there are usually some notes about what to add or change if you want to. Here’s an example of where RHONY’s Ramona Singer forgot to delete an entire paragraph:
You know it’s bad when you can’t even realize that the caption shouldn’t start with the words “here is the draft.” Ramona quickly figured this out and fixed it, but other celebrities like Naomi Campbell and Scott Disick have made the same mistake. This is truly just a careless thing to do, but it shows how little celebrities actually care about the products when they’re cashing major checks. 2019 is wild.
Jessica Alba probably has no idea that she’s posting in the same kitchen as Kate Hudson, and it’s honestly not even her problem. Someone else definitely booked the kitchen space for her, and they probably should have done a little more research. How am I supposed to think about probiotics when I can’t stop staring at those iconic cutting boards?! Either way, I’m sure she got a nice little paycheck from that photo, so good for her.
Images: jessicaalba, melissajoanhart, ramonasinger / Instagram; WW
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