You know that 17-year-old Belgium fan that landed a modeling contract with L’Oreal after she was photographed at the World Cup? Axelle Despiegelaere worked with L’Oreal to create one social media video before her contract was terminated. A hunting photo that she posted on Facebook may explain why her gig was so short-lived.
Axelle’s Facebook page, which had nearly 30,000 likes but has since been deleted, featured several photos of her wearing Belgium colors and cheering on her team. There was also one photo that showed her holding a rifle and posing with a dead gazelle. It sparked outrage, as did the caption that went along with it.
Despiegelaere posted the photo before Belgium’s win over the United States. Here’s what she wrote, according to Business Insider:
“Hunting is not a matter of life or death. It’s much more important than that…this was about 1 year ago. Ready to hunt Americans today haha.”
After reading all the backlash from fans, Axelle changed the caption to simply read “this was about 1 year ago.” She also apologized to anyone she might have offended.
Apparently it didn’t matter. On Thursday, a L’Oreal spokesperson told The Independent that the beauty product company is done working with Axelle.
“L’Oréal Professionnel Belgium collaborated with her on an ad hoc basis to produce a video for social media use in Belgium,” the spokesperson said. “The contract has now been completed.”
The representative would not confirm nor deny whether the hunting photo was responsible for Despiegelaere’s contract being terminated but stressed that L’Oreal “no longer tests on animals, anywhere in the world, and does not delegate this task to others.”
It seems pretty obvious what happened. The most bizarre part about the story is that Axelle is the second young lady we have been introduced to this month that has hunted exotic animals. What are the odds of that?
Here’s the video Axelle produced before her contract ended:
H/T Guyism
