Disney is known for its fairy tales featuring true love, destiny, and happily-ever-afters. As Disney has grown and acquired other media outlets, these themes have permeated our lives, even as we age out of Disney’s idyllic world. As one of Disney’s companies, ABC has created a narrative for their Bachelor franchise that mimics a Cinderella-esque story: the star of the show seeks to find true love among dozens of beautiful people while working through the drama of selecting their one true love with whom they ride off into the sunset. To bolster this narrative, the show often features weddings of previous contestants and/or features couples with children or expectant couples n as proof that the process works. For example, Bachelor in Paradise usually has a date fairly early on with the contestants attending a previous Bachelor couple’s wedding or babysitting their kids. However, an oppositional read to this narrative is that The Bachelor franchise is really a boot camp for influencers.
In terms of Burke’s Pentad, the narrative that ABC presents is as follows: the agent is the star, the act is finding love, the agency is rose ceremonies and dates, the scene is The Bachelor mansion, and the purpose is to get married. However, one could also look at the show and see a version of the Pentad that proposes the quest for fame and fortune, not love. In this Pentad, the agent(s) would be the contestants, the act is to become a successful influencer, the agency is drama, the scene is Instagram, and the purpose is to make money and be famous.
Each season, contestants go on dates with the star in various glamorous locations around the globe. Some of the dates are group dates that feature a challenge — the prize being extra alone time with the star. During the latest season of The Bachelor featuring Peter Weber as the eligible bachelor, group dates included photoshoots, fashion shows, and acting out a telenovela — all of which required the contestants to be influencers. While there may be romanticism involved in trying new things together and growing a relationship through challenges, many of these challenges were more like auditions for sponsorships than games to reveal true feelings for Peter. For example, on Peter Weber’s season, one of the dates was a Revolve Fashion Show. Revolve relies heavily on influencer marketing and the prize for winning was a large amount of Revolve clothing. During this “date”, the women chose and explained their outfit choices, and then modeled them — all major activities for an influencer.
After each season, the front-runners typically get “verified” on Instagram and are usually quick to round up sponsorships and partnerships with brands spanning from fitness companies to laundry detergent companies. For many contestants, these sponsorships become their new day job, potentially supplemented by modeling gigs. In fact, throughout each season contestants are accused of going on the show for “the wrong reasons”, which is defined by motives relating to their career or sponsorships.
The evidence for this read is in the fact that neither of the past two stars, Peter Weber and Hannah Brown, ended up finding true love at the finale. In Brown’s case, it came out that the “winner” had been living a double life and had gone on the show only to advance his music career, not to find the love of his life in line with ABC’s narrative. In Peter Weber’s case, he struggled to make and stand by his decisions regarding which women he wanted to explore deeper relationships with. This scenario permeated The Bachelor spinoff called Bachelor in Paradise, with fewer and fewer people who meet on the show staying together for any measurable time after the finale –despite big incentives to stay together for two years after the show, such as getting their wedding funded and receiving Neil Lane wedding and engagement rings of their choice. The Bachelor allows room for this oppositional read because, in a sense, the franchise itself acts as an influencer. Each city the show chooses to visit is part of a tourism commercial, and each activity is something trendy and new that is likely sponsored, not to mention various alcohol, food, and clothing brands featured in each episode. Viewing it this way, The Bachelor franchise is a cash cow for brands looking to access the millennial market or to add influencer marketing to their marketing mix. And, each participant in the show becomes a part of the influencer marketing industry, which leaves little if any room for true romance.