Advertisers have been saying for years that sex sells. That’s why they seemingly use lascivious images to try and sell us everything from cars to food to prescription medications. But there are limits, as Lili Reinhart found out the wrong way.
The “Riverdale” star conceivably had only the best of intentions when she tried to raise awareness about and demand justice after the shooting death of Breonna Taylor in her bed by police officers serving a no-knock warrant.
It is an important cause and a worthy statement to make, but most quickly agreed that Reinhart’s “sideboob” really had no place in the discussion.
After a monumental backlash to her initial Instagram post on Monday, Reinhart quickly apologized, tweeting, “I made a mistake with my caption. It was never my intent to insult anyone and I’m truly sorry to those that were offended.”
Many would argue that it wasn’t just the caption, or even the entire caption, that was problematic.
Accompanying a picture of Reinhart holding her chest to her knees, thus exposing the attention-getting and aforementioned part of her body, the actress wrote in that initial post, “Now that my sideboob has gotten your attention, Breonna Taylor’s murderers have not been arrested. Demand justice.”
Later acknowledging that her caption came off as “tone deaf,” Reinhart insisted, “I had good intentions,” but admits she “did not think it through that it could come off as insensitive.”
In fact, while Reinhart thought the provocative imagery might give her followers pause so she could then hit them with raised awareness about Taylor, many took it as exactly the opposite, exploiting the tragedy of Taylor’s death as an excuse to post a provocative picture.
While Reinhart has subsequently deleted her original post, the internet does not forget, and there are plenty of screen captures and copies of it circulating around.
But as many people as are lashing out at the young star for her “tone deaf” attempt to raise awareness, she has plenty of supporters. They might agree that this attempt missed the mark, but aren’t ready to dismiss everything else Reinhart has been doing on her social media pages to amplify Black voices and be an ally to the Black Lives Matter movement.
