Then there were the rumors that she was related to one of the UFA higher-ups. Related as in his neice or something.
But then the question becomes, "Did the rumor cause the backlash, or did the backlash cause the rumor?"
Doing CMs and such wasn't anything new for Momusu girls before they joined. Aside from Risa's karaoke machine ad, there's notable examples of Makoto and Rika doing fashion ads, and Kaori on the packaging of some batteries. Not entirely sure about the last one though, because the picture doesn't particularly look like her.