Kim Kardashian may have recently been called ‘out of touch’ for complaining that ‘nobody works these days’, but that sentiment certainly doesn’t apply to the reality star’s PR team.
Over the years, Kim – and her family – have found themselves in the middle of countless business dramas. But, despite the severity of the scandals, the reality stars have managed to keep their careers alive and thriving.
So much so, that their new show “The Kardashians“, which premieres April 14 on Disney Plus, is reportedly paying family a nine-figure salary.
Ahead of the show’s launch, we look at some of the biggest business scandals that the Kardashian family has faced.
Kendall’s Pepsi commercial
In 2017, Kendall Jenner appeared in a Pepsi commercial that showed her partaking in a photoshoot before deciding to join a group of people who are protesting. Kendall is then seen approaching a policeman and handing him a can of Pepsi. After the policeman cracks open the can of Pepsi, the protestors break into cheers and applause.
The commercial was largely criticized for both trivialising and capitalizing on the Black Lives Matter movement. Pepsi pulled the ad less than 48 hours after its initial release and issued a statement on the matter.
“Pepsi was trying to project a global message of unity, peace and understanding. Clearly, we missed the mark and apologize,” the statement read. “We did not intend to make light of any serious issue. We are pulling the content and halting any further rollout.”
Khloe’s “KHLO-C-D” home organization series
Khloe Kardashian faced public backlash after naming a home organization series on her website ‘KHLO-C-D’. While Khloe never specified exactly what ‘KHLO-C-D’ meant, it didn’t take fans long to make the connection between the mental illness obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and the Kardashian’s apparent play on words.
In one episode of the series, Khloe posted a quiz titled “How KHLO-C-D are you?” On Twitter while telling her followers that she liked arranging cookies perfectly in jars.
Although Khloe was extensively criticized online for exploiting mental illness with the term ‘KHLO-C-D’, she never publicly addressed the matter and left the content up on her website.
Kylie and Kendall’s Clothing Line
When it comes to the Kardashians and business scandals, Kylie is relatively unproblematic. However, the makeup mogul did find herself in hot water when she and her sister Kendall released a drop of “vintage” T-shirts for their clothing line in 2017.
The t-shirts featured Kylie and Kendall’s faces superimposed on images of famous musicians, including Metallica, Tupac, Pink Floyd and Kiss. While the move originally drew a considerable amount of criticism, it quickly developed into a legal nightmare.
The photographer who took the image of Tupac that was featured on one of the shirts sued Kendal and Kylie for using it without his permission. Miller claimed that the women “misappropriated and wrongfully exploited” the pictures and “intended to exploit his photography.”
The lawsuit was mysteriously dropped a year later, with no information released about a settlement or resolution.
However, Kylie Jenner did issue an apology on Twitter and the t-shirts were promptly removed from their site.
Kourtney’s Skim’s photoshoot with Megan Fox
Last year, Kourtney Kardashian and Megan Fox posed for a Skims photoshoot that went viral almost instantly. In the photo, the two women were dressed in underwear and Kourtney was pictured feeding Megan a cherry.
Megan and Kourtney were accused of plagiarizing another shoot featuring that featured models Draya Michele and Tanaya Henry feeding one another cherries.
A former friend of Kourtney’s, Kristen Noel Crawley, took to Instagram to point out the similarities between the two pictures, and captioned the post, “Black women are always the blueprint, and don’t you forget it.”
Kim’s Shapewear brand name
Kim’s very famous shapewear line, which is now called Skims, was originally launched under the name ‘Kimono’.
Social media users were quick to point out the traditional significance of the kimono to Japanese culture, and criticise Kim for her lack of respect.
“Thanks for BUTCHERING Japanese culture!!! My culture is not your plaything,” one user wrote on Twitter.
The controversy actually played out on an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians and showed Kim addressing the public backlash.
“Who would ever think that hey, I would want to do something that would be disrespectful?’”Kim said to co-star Scott Disick in the episode, adding: “They’re saying that I’m cultural appropriating.”
Kim later admitted that it was “foolish and ignorant” of her to use the name Kimono, and rebranded the shapewear brand as Skims.
Wow, @KimKardashian.
Thanks for BUTCHERING Japanese culture!!! My culture is not your plaything.
You don’t have any respect for people who are not your family, do you?
In the 15 yrs developing this project, couldn’t you find a cultural advisor?#KimOhNo #culturalappropriation https://t.co/OsDYVZxPhx— かすみん #BlackLivesMatter #StopAAPIHate (@liaoyingQQQi) June 26, 2019