Comments on: Is Social Media Changing the Way We Think About Celebrity?

By: Rob Hyndman

Rob Hyndman — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 10:42:17 +0000

Yup – I’d heard that they were working on it. Now the real money begins, I guess. BTW, Nav, my bad for using the phrase “artistic community” – what I meant was that in many fields the creative enterprise has chosen the “star” as the way to market and brand the art. Film and TV are the best examples, obviously. It reminds me of the supermodel craze in the 80s and 90s – which led to such out-of-control behaviour and salary demands that the fashion industry more or less shut down on the idea of the celebrity model (there are still some, but many fewer) and put more of their focus back on the designer and the clothing.

As to what drives people, my point was that to some extent, that’s determined by the way the product is marketed. And because Hollywood has deliberately cultivated a star culture, this is what they’ve built. In the beginning they had control over it. When the studio system changed they still maintained pretty close control over the way media presented their product (through the approaches I mention in the post). Now, not so much.

By: Nav

Nav — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 05:05:15 +0000

Heh – the Globe just put up a post saying that TMZ are launching a TV channel and has been sold to 200 stations across the US. No Canadian takers yet.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070727.wgtTMZ27/BNStory/Technology/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20070727.wgtTMZ27

By: Leigh

Leigh — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 03:00:45 +0000

I think if you look at who was on the magazine covers ten years ago (no name model types) versus now, there has been an incredible shift in how celebrities create their images. People like Madonna carefully constructed public identities in a manner that is very similar to how an agency create brands. And then they use those brands to extend them in a variety to different ways…..product extensions if you will. All absolutely in my opinion completely controlled.

Ironically, (or maybe not ironically at all) those same celebrities are now finding themselves in the same problematic situations that a lot of corporate brands are. The problem of how to deal with the ever empowered consumer/customer (who have a network of people beside them with an always on digitally connected world), who are determining what brands, including celebrity brands, do or do not stand for.

Ah…where is Andy Warhol when you need him….

By: Nav

Nav — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 02:43:04 +0000

Is it entirely fair to say that the artistic community has ‘chosen’ celebrity as a branding vehicle? I think that ascribes too much power to the artists. It seems celebrity has a lot to do with desire and economics – forces that artists can utilise but not really control, particularly given the mesh of stuff attached to celebrity: fashion, cosmetics, beauty, conspicuous consumption, materialism etc etc.

And yeah, sad as it is, I think the ‘focusing on the art’ thing is optimistic. What really drives people? The power of film, or their desire to be/be with Lindsay Lohan? (okay, perhaps not the best example – you know what I mean though).

By: Rob Hyndman

Rob Hyndman — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 19:58:11 +0000

Good point – the artistic community has chosen the celebrity as a branding vehicle – live and die by it, I suppose. Hopefully, this would encourage more attention on the art. Doubt it, though.

By: Leigh

Leigh — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 17:40:19 +0000

I saw a video a while back that was on the set of a Lily Tomlin/Dustin Hoffman film where Lily was having a complete melt down and creative differences with the director. On top of that, at some point (the scene was inside car) Dustin Hoffman farted with a “excuse me” during Lily’s fight.

It was very strange watching this. I kept thinking – do i really want to know the under belly of creative politics between stars and directors? And even more importantly, do i really want to hear Dustin fart out of character?

So it does beg the question as you say, if the pedestal is gone, is there really anything left? Well, maybe art….oh crap, who cares about that?