Much has been said about the alleged relationship between Bad Bunny and Kendall Jenner in recent days: why the Puerto Rican, defender of Latinos, hang out with a woman who apparently despises them?; that they are using each other to reach new business audiences; or that it’s all really a well-crafted farce to give Latino fans a good gossip, and make them love Kendall back after her scandals and cultural appropriation.
These theories are not lacking foundation. On social media, it has been said that the images that TMZ published along with a report that says that paparazzi had captured the interpreter of “Titi Me Preguntó” and the model in a kind of “romantic date,” which belong to the photography agency Backgrid, were planned, and not carried out in true paparazzi style.
But let’s go step by step.
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What Is Backgrid and What Role Does It Play in All This Case?
Backgrid, as already mentioned, is a photography agency to which several “paparazzi” belong, and which supports their work before the big tabloids in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia; something like a guild of photographers who are dedicated to gossip. However, the company is not a representative of paparazzi, but rather of photographers who shoot staged images paid for by celebrities that look like paparazzi photos.
And how do we know this? There is information in media such as El País and Cosmopolitan magazine that declares that the people who work for that company are hired by artists and celebrities themselves to help them generate conversation about what they do with their private lives, either to get more followers, so as not to lose validity or to get publicity for the launch of one of their new products.
To exemplify this, Cosmopolitan had an interview with the paparazzi creator of the Stupid Famous People site, Justin Steffman, back in 2016, on the occasion of some images taken of Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston in which they appeared kissing. This was what Steffman had to say about it then:
“Taylor Swift is a celebrity that won’t walk outside without perfect makeup and great fashion, and she smiles at every paparazzi to make sure they all get beautiful pictures. There is an unspoken deal between Swift and the paparazzi, and her bodyguards make it clear. If we act professionally and listen to their instructions, then she will give it up, and everyone gets what they want,” he commented.
“We get nice pictures, and she looks great in the magazines. She takes an entirely different approach to the paparazzi than most celebrities do. It’s all about business for her. Every time she steps outside is a new opportunity for her to look good in the magazines. Certain celebrities, like Taylor, not only accept that paparazzi are a part of the business, but they actually go out of their way to use us as a tool for publicity”.
And although the celebrities who agree to carry out this type of “deals” with the paparazzi (or with their agencies, as in the case of Backgrid) apparently have no reason to do so, they possibly do it, according to Steffaman, to have greater control over their public image and to direct gossip about them into “safe” places.
“The biggest reason is money. But they also release photos because they want to have control of their own image. Many set-up photos include a paid product endorsement, where a photo agency works as a middleman between a celebrity and a company, who has a product to sell,” the photographer added.
“Certain photo agencies specialize in these types of fake paparazzi photos. They usually try to make the photos look natural and candid, but in reality, the celebrity and the photographer are working together. It’s a paid photo shoot, and the celebrity gets a big check. The readers of tabloid magazines and blogs have no idea!”
Was Everything Staged? Fan Theories About Bad Bunny and Kendall Jenner
And how do we know that the “relationship” between Bad Bunny and Kendall Jenner could be an example of all this? Simple: Steffman himself assures that one of the celebrities who most often recurs to this “false paparazzi” technique is, precisely, Kendall’s older sister: Kim Kardashian.
“Kim Kardashian is the biggest example of a celebrity who releases fake paparazzi photos. Kim has a personal paparazzi who she texts regularly. This man flies around the world, going wherever she asks him to be, and they work together to produce the latest fake paparazzi pictures of her. She reviews every image before they start selling them to magazines. If they shoot on a beach, these images are heavily Photoshopped, and she chooses her favorites to sell,” he affirmed.
That being the case, how could we not think that Kendall and Bad Bunny’s relationship is a setup? Because also, let’s take into account that one of the persons who catch the influencer’s back the most is her mother, Kris Jenner, the woman who helped set up and grow her daughters’ companies and themselves as entertainment “products.”
In fact, many fans claim that this entire situation with the Puerto Rican and the socialite was planned by Kris, as an almost desperate measure to make her daughter shine among the Latino public, who does not like her due to the reports that have come out about her companies and her commercial dealings, in which she has apparently abused the work of many minorities and population sectors such as, precisely, Latinos.
And even when she decided to become a businesswoman with her own tequila label, 818, very few Latinos applauded her movement, and the majority complained about her for doing a kind of cultural appropriation simply to earn money in a country where consumption of alcoholic beverages produced in Latin countries, such as Mexico, is cheaper and, therefore, considered bad or unreliable.
What has surprised the fans the most is that Bad Bunny has agreed to make a deal with the Jenners since many do not understand what he would be getting out of all this.
“Bad Bunny really said ‘Todos quieren ser latinos pero les falta sazón’ (everyone wants to be Latin but they lack flavor, in English), and then proceeds to get with a white woman with the least ‘sazón’ (flavor) in her family and that exploited Mexicans by releasing her own white washed tequila,” user @libraologyy commented on Twitter.
“No fr like how are you going to make ‘El Apagón’ a song about displacement, socioeconomic issues and then go be with a woman who takes from minorities,” said Twitter user @222astrobebe.
Could it be that Bad Bunny did all this for the money? Or for reaching new trade agreements, precisely, to get more money? Or to maintain his position in the US market and not only among the Latin public? What do you think?
