Becca’s First Promo For ‘The Bachelorette’ Is Sending Mixed Messages

Is ABC…serious with this promo for Becca’s upcoming season of The Bachelorette? They’re on a fast break, ready to make the lay-up, and, oh, they just missed the basket.

The first promo for Becca’s season of The Bachelorette, which begins later this month, premiered last night and already has me feeling nervous. After Arie’s absolute shitshow of a season, we all united as a nation and celebrated Becca Kufrin as America’s Chosen One, the woman who would find redemption and love and allow us all to enjoy it on television every Monday night.

And Becca’s great. She seems very nice and relatable and she’s pretty and we’d all totally jump at the chance to go to brunch with her. But she’s not Beyoncé, she’s not quite a feminist hero, and we don’t love her enough just yet to be able to tolerate “let’s do the damn thing” as a season-long slogan. So please let your marketing department know.

Because this promo is a hot mess. She looks fantastic, let’s be clear on that. The shimmery bronze dress, the earrings, the makeup the hair, it’s all perfect. The winking, the dancing, that’s great. Showing off the girl squad, amazing.

But why are we being forced to relive that fake proposal? Every human being in America knows what happened. This whole season should be about moving forward, forgetting the past, and letting Becca Mariah Carey herself throughout the whole season, dropping, “I don’t know him”s whenever she pleases.

Which brings us to the tag line, the slogan, the catchphrase, the lamest sentence you can associate with a woman you are expecting to carry your show and its ratings through the summer. “Let’s do the damn thing” was almost okay the first time she said it and it was already cringe-worthy by the second uttering. Now we’re trying to ride this thing through two months of shows? Please, no.

The imagery is sort of cute, with the breaking the heart with Arie’s face on it, but can we get a prop a bit more appropriate for what he put her and all of us through? Perhaps a voodoo doll or a piñata or a punching bag with his face on it? Something more than a thick, pre-cut piece of paper that she can do more with and really illustrate this metaphor to its full potential.

The 30-second promo is set to Kesha’s “Woman” a female empowerment anthem, and when Becca dances in front of the word “Independent”…well I’m confused. Can you be an independent woman? Yas queen. Can you also want to find a man? You go girl. It’s 2018! But…we’re already rooting for Becca and it’s because we want her to succeed and live her best life, and mainly, find a man to partner up with. So throwing this whole “independent” theme at us while also rooting for her to, in a way, find someone she can give up some of her independence for is a lot of mixed messages at once. And if ABC isn’t clear on their messages and their mission here for, again, what should be a total slam dunk of a season, I can’t help but get preemptively nervous about how exactly Becca will indeed do the damn thing.

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