Many girls try to prove their attractiveness to themselves and others. Tens of thousands and sometimes millions of rubles are invested in improving the appearance. The apotheosis of the race is competitions that are based on an unpretentious business model. Who makes money on them and how?
Beauties parade
I go into the hall after the start of the battle for the title "Mrs. Kaluga - 2019", trying to find my chair in the dark. Women, whom I unwittingly shorten the view, rush me: on the stage there are their friends and relatives and they carefully follow their every movement and word.
The hall is half full, but the places closest to the stage and the most expensive are empty. During the break, I eavesdrop on conversations: everyone came to cheer for their "Mrs.", the competition did not arouse interest among outsiders. Only a few people bought tickets for the 40-minute performance of the singer Shura. But when the artist sang the last song, they left the competition without waiting for the announcement of the name of the winner.
The tickets were sold by the Kaluga LLC "Star Rain", headed by Maxim Novikov, who earns on all sorts of entertainment events. But the regional competition among "missis" is organized only by the partner representation of the main organizer from Moscow.
Regional stages are held only in half of the subjects of the country - where it is possible to find local businessmen who are ready to invest in organizing the competition. In Kaluga there were such, but, for example, in neighboring Oryol - no. And Oryol women cannot win a ticket to Moscow and claim the status of the most beautiful married lady.
There are many beauty contests in Russia that defy counting. "Beauty of Russia", "Queen of Russia", "Beauty of the Russian Empire" and, of course, the most famous - "Miss Russia". All of them annually reveal the "most beautiful", there is no single and generally recognized title. There are many and purely regional competitions.
Miss fake!
The winner of the Miss Ukraine contest, Veronica Didusenko, was stripped of her crown. After the finale, it turned out that she had a four-year-old son, whom she hid when filling out the questionnaire. Like the last marriage.
What do they earn
Anastasia Anisimova from Podolsk organized a stage of the Miss Russia contest in her city several years ago, and then began giving master classes on “How to organize a beauty contest and make money on it”. But Anisimova herself first of all set a related goal - the promotion of her other business.
- This is the PR of my wedding agency. Thanks to the competition, all unmarried girls, their girlfriends and grooms learned about us, she admits.
The cost of participation in the master class is 10 thousand rubles. The girls from the provinces have to pay about the same amount as an entry fee to participate in contests. The maximum bar reaches 50 thousand rubles. The federal level costs the contestants a little more: Polina Dibrova, who became "Mrs. Russia" in 2017, said that she paid 65 thousand rubles for the right to compete for the title. But the registration fee is just the beginning.
- Already at the first qualifying round, they demanded from us 5 thousand rubles for a photo session. You can't do without it, you had to give it up. Then the services of a stylist, rent of clothes, tailoring of a dress went. As a result, I even had to borrow, and in total paid more than 100 thousand, - says Ekaterina, the finalist of the Miss Russia stage of one of the regional centers.
According to Ekaterina, she did not receive any "sexual" offers from anyone. This is either a myth or a method that has already become a thing of the past, the finalist believes. However, she heard that a man from among the “friends of the organizers” still offered help in exchange for attention to another girl who did not have money to continue the struggle, but unobtrusively.
It is also possible to earn money by selling entrance tickets. It turns out that here, too, the relatives of the contestants themselves pay, who de facto invest in a possible victory. There are, however, also sponsors of competitions, and some organizers manage to attract even budget funds.
Thus, the festival "Petersburg beauties" is supported by the administration of St. Petersburg, and the founders of the competition, the capital of beautiful events, received more than a million rubles through the system of state orders. A million rubles is the prize fund of the competition this year.
"Miss" lose to "Instagram women"
In April, the title "Miss Russia - 2019" was won by Alina Sanko from Azov. As a prize, Alina received 3 million rubles. and the right to represent the country at Miss World and Miss Universe.
By the way
For the first time in history, a transgender model took part in last year's Miss Universe pageant. Prior to this, Angela Ponce first won the title of "Miss Spain". Ponce was born a man, but already in childhood she realized that she considered herself a woman.
The most popular Russian competition is organized by the National Beauty Contest LLC, which is controlled by the Russian Standard holding company of billionaire Rustam Tariko. According to accounting records, Miss Russia has not been doing very well in recent years. Revenue is falling, and since 2016, instead of profit, the organization began to show losses.
The director of Krasa Rossii, Tatyana Andreeva, also spoke about the financial difficulties in an interview. In the process of preparing this material, the site was even blocked due to late payment for hosting.
The reason for the fall in interest in beauty competitions is social networks. In reality, the title of the most beautiful is no longer played on the podium of the provincial DK or Barvikha Luxury Village, but on Instagram. And instead of judging by the jury - the number of subscribers and likes.
In terms of popularity in social networks, girls with the titles of the first beauties clearly lose to the queens of instagram. So, Miss Russia 2017 Polina Popova has only 64 thousand followers on Instagram, while the “self-proclaimed” have millions.
Requirements for Miss Russia participants:
- Height from 173 cm
- Age 18-23
- No bad habits and no tattoos
- Lack of photos and videos of an erotic nature
- Not married and without children
- No criminal record
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The material was published in the publication "Interlocutor" 15-2019 under the title "Beauty and money: what is more important?"
