Supermodel Isabeli Fontana Is Taking Heat For Controversial Ad Campaign

Here’s why Instagram commentators are criticizing her exotic new photos.

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Supermodel Isabeli Fontana has been accused of cultural appropriation on Instagram after posing for an exotic ad campaign for Brazilian swimwear line Água de Coco.

The Brazilian beauty–and former Maxim cover model– posted a photo from the campaign to her Instagram account, which English-speaking followers expectedly hailed as “stunning” and Portuguese speakers as “linda.”

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But the photos posted to the Instagram account of the campaign’s production studio, Mangaba Criação e Produçãom, received a far more mixed reaction.

Some commentators took umbrage at the Italian-descended model donning Amazonian-inspired designs and accessories and striking poses before a lineup of indigenous Brazilians.

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One peeved commentator wrote, “So the native as [the] background! How racist!”

Another, in Portuguese, quipped, “How beautiful this cultural appropriation! Thankfully the Internet does not forgive!”

This certainly isn’t the first time fashionable photos have been blasted online for borrowing from other cultures. 

Criticism has spanned from fashion brand Valentino, which raised hackles with its African-inspired Spring 2016 line, to the hair accessories of actress Vanessa Hudgens. The Spring Breakers beauty was recently accused of trivializing Native American culture by wearing a dreamcatcher.

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Whether or not the flap over Fontana’s photos will provoke further Internet outrage remains to be seen. But until then, we can always appreciate the Brazilian beauty’s considerably less-controversial turn in Fergie’s epic “M.I.L.F. $” video.

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