Grammy Award winner Rihanna is a beautiful, phenomenally gifted singer, but her soft spot for her ex-boyfriend – the equally talented performer, Chris Brown – is starting to cost her a lot of money. Rihanna, to some people’s dismay, has clearly forgiven Brown for his well-publicized beating of her, an incident that occurred right before the 2009 Grammys.
In fact, the two singers have been able to patch things up to the point where they collaborated on two songs this year, sparking speculation that they might re-unite as a couple.
In August, Rihanna even admitted to talk show queen Oprah Winfrey that she and Chris Brown still “love each other and we probably always will.” And just this month, Rihanna and Brown openly kissed at the VMA Music Awards. It wasn’t a passionate embrace or anything, just a quick peck. But after a series of cryptic tweets by Rihanna seemingly directed at Brown and a constant swirl of rumors about the once crazy-in-love duo, that very public smooch left no doubt at all for the public that the two have reconciled their differences and are now “close friends,” as Rihanna told Oprah.
While I don’t condone domestic violence at all, I do respect and applaud Rihanna’s willingness and ability to forgive Brown and move on. Rihanna may have learned – as the Bible teaches – that forgiveness is as much for the person doing the forgiving, as it is for the person being forgiven.
Unfortunately for Rihanna, the rest of the world hasn’t reconciled the fact that Rihanna has made peace with the man who three years ago left her battered and bruised.
So for Rihanna, the sad truth is that – as unfair as it is – her forgiveness of Brown comes at a cost. An emotional cost, to be sure, as evidenced by Rihanna’s teary confessions to Oprah. But there’s a high financial cost to her forgiveness as well – even if Rihanna doesn’t fully realize it, or doesn’t care.
A Major Endorsement Lost
The primary way in which Rihanna’s forgiveness and lingering love for Chris Brown will be costly can be seen in her deals with corporate sponsors.
Apparently, Rihanna breaking up with Chris Brown isn’t enough for many critics.
The fact that Rihanna has not flat-out distanced herself from Brown (as critics want her to do) is almost certainly off-putting to many potential companies and brands that might have wanted to align themselves with Rihanna. These are potential sponsorships, endorsements, and advertising deals that will never come Rihanna’s way – all because of her allegiance to Brown.
Consider this: After the vicious 2009 fight that led to their breakup, and then rumors that Brown and Rihanna might get back together, David Reeder, vice president at the branding agency GreenLight told E! Online: “I don’t believe brands will use a reunion with Chris Brown as the sole basis for disengaging from her.”
“More likely,” Reeder predicted, “brands will let consumers voice their opinion on the resumption of her relationship. If public sentiment takes a less than supportive turn, current deals she has may choose not to renew.”
Unfortunately for Rihanna that prediction appears to have come true.
Just last month, Nivea Cosmetics dropped Rihanna as a spokesperson in a multi-faceted, multi-million dollar campaign.
In 2011, Nivea paid Rihanna $25 million – so this was a huge endorsement deal. In fact, this one corporate sponsorship represented the single largest piece of Rihanna’s income – more money than her earnings from singing.
In July 2012, Forbes magazine reported that Rihanna’s sponsorship deal with Nivea had pushed her to the number three spot in the publication’s ranking of the 30 richest celebrities under 30.
Forbes put Rihanna’s 12-month income at $53 million, meaning the Nivea deal alone was nearly half of her annual pay. Overall, Forbes ranked Rihanna #4 on the magazine’s May 2012 list of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Celebrities.
Is it Just That Rihanna’s Too Sexy?
So why did Nivea have a change of heart about Rihanna, after just signing her a year ago? Supposedly, the company decided to part ways with the singer because it deemed Rihanna to be “too sexy.”
In explaining the decision not to renew Rihanna, Stefan Heidenreich, the head of Nivea’s parent company, Beiersdorf, told German media that Rihanna’s brand didn’t fit with the Nivea brand’s family image. “I do not understand how Nivea can be brought into association with Rihanna,” he said, adding: “Nivea is a company which stands for trust, family and reliability.”
Say what?!
Rihanna wasn’t some former Disney star with a wholesome image that suddenly got all grown up and went wild. Nivea knew very well that the “We Found Love” singer had a reputation for being ultra sexy, provocative and edgy.
Still, Nivea featured Rihanna in a series of advertisements for its lotion, and the cosmetics giant also sponsored her world tour and other Rihanna events in 2011.
To suggest that Rihanna suddenly no longer fit some “family” image was disingenuous at best. Didn’t Nivea executives know about Rih Rih’s sexy image and hard-partying ways before they inked that blockbuster deal? Of course they did!
Besides, did Nivea forget that their own print ad, celebrating the company’s 100th anniversary, featured Rihanna topless with fiery red hair? Not to mention the fact that Rih Rih’s hit song “California King Bed” – the video for which has her writhing on a bed with a man – played in a special TV commercial celebrating Nivea’s centennial.
So I’m not buying the whole “she was too sexy” excuse.
The more likely explanation is that Nivea didn’t like Rihanna’s continued association with Chris Brown. Right or wrong, those two will probably forever be linked – at least in the public’s eye – with that ill-fated night of domestic violence. And domestic violence doesn’t exactly fit with the wholesome “family” image Nivea wants to project.
So to the extent that Rihanna maintains connected in any way to Brown – including the prospect of a Rihanna-Chris Brown friendship or (gasp!) the possibility of a romantic reunion – that scenario almost certainly put Nivea execs on edge.
Rihanna tweeting out pictures of her smoking weed and drinking alcohol likely didn’t help either. But a rejection of all this – her ties to Chris Brown and Rihanna’s personal choices and hard-charging lifestyle – is something Nivea execs probably didn’t want to say publicly and candidly. Their actions spoke loud and clearly though.
Whatever the case, Rihanna seemed to shrug off Nivea’s move. Right after Heidenreich’s statement, on August 7 Rihanna went on Twitter and posted a headshot of Heidenreich, along with the comment: “No caption necessary.”
Other than that, she hasn’t publicly commented on the soured deal. But the loss of a $25 million sponsor has got to hurt.
Still Topping the Music Charts
On the positive side, Rihanna has been able to generate and maintain commercial success in other ways. For starters, she’s kept her lucrative contract promoting Vita Coco coconut water.
More impressive, Rihanna’s Rebelle perfume is the #1 top-selling celebrity perfume and it’s earned the Barbados-born singer millions of dollars.
And the most obvious bright spot is what shot Rihanna to fame in the first place. When it comes to her music, she’s unstoppable and is lauded as a constant innovator.
That’s why Rihanna’s music sales have remained strong and fans of her music continue to love her songs. Despite criticism of Rihanna, there’s little doubt that Rihanna’s fans have generally been enormously supportive of her – before and after the Brown episode.
Likewise, Rihanna’s concert sales are strong. She played to sold-out concerts globally over the past year and had a heavy touring schedule that included more than 85 tour dates, according to Forbes.
Even now, many fans of the sultry songstress are anticipating the arrival of Rihanna’s latest album in November. As usual, Rihanna is expected to top the music charts.
Like it or not, though, there are some still people who simply won’t buy her songs, download her tracks, or attend a Rihanna concert — solely because of how she’s handle the Brown affair.
But if Rihanna can find it in her heart to forgive Chris Brown, who are we to judge?
As she told Oprah, Rihanna did what she felt she needed to do – for both herself and the ex-lover she still deeply cares for.
For Rihanna’s sake, however, I just hope that her forgiving Chris Brown doesn’t cost her more than she expects.
Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, The Money Coach®, is a personal finance expert, television and radio personality, and the author of numerous books, including the New York Times bestseller ‘Zero Debt: The Ultimate Guide to Financial Freedom.’ She has appeared on such national TV programs as ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show,’ ‘Dr. Phil,’ ‘The Tyra Banks Show’ and ‘Good Morning America’ sharing her success story and teaching millions about proper money management. Follow Lynnette Khalfani-Cox on Twitter at @TheMoneyCoach.