In Cycle 7, the models took a trip to Barcelona and were given a seemingly fun challenge that included filming a commercial in the language of Catalan. The models even got to pick a handsome male model to kiss in the commercial. However, the fun wore off when contestant Jaeda Young-Englund selected a model who later told her that he didn't like Black girls. Startled by his racist comment, she then voiced her concern to Banks, who told her, "Well, you're going to have to give him a kiss to make him love Black girls." 

During the commercial shoot, Young-Englund found it hard to not only work with a racist model, but have to kiss him as well. As she began to cry, Jay Manuel told her, "You can't cry because we don't have time to fix your makeup." After pulling herself together and kissing him, the judges later told her that she acted unprofessionally during the shoot and that her issue should have never stopped her from completing the job. In a 2020 interview with Variety, Manuel responded to the recent backlash of the show and mentioned being uncomfortable with certain aspects of it. "Many times when you're working in an environment like that, you have to listen to your executive producers, and ultimately the two voices at the top were Ken [Mok] and Tyra [Banks]. There were sometimes several objections by other producers and myself about layers that were added to creative, and we were just told to execute," Manuel said.

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