celebrity

 

 

2011. A perfect storm of an interview that could have gone two ways. Barbara Walters asks the one question after half a decade of the famous for being famous phenomenon.

"So what exactly is it that you do?" Didn't flinch for an instant. Like rote she called out so many elements of the Kim brand.

I have had some pause to think about the residue of this in relation to now and the latest local phenomenon - I'm a celebrity get me out of here. I surveyed the list of contestants and the people I actually knew were a soap opera star that I haven't heard about for two decades, two retired football players and a television presenter. All the rest were a complete mystery to me as I have never heard of them. So I did a little research and looked them up. The overall thought was that the very nature of the phenomenon of celebrity - has it run its course? News of a big dilemma from the marketing department. How do we promote these people, lacking in so many different attributes? Let's call them a celebrity! 

Then as an exercise I typed in top celebrities by year from 2020 backwards. Aside from not knowing the vast majority of them, it was amazing to see how short some of their tenures in the field of celebrity actually were, with some famous for reasons and actions so banal and tedious.

Socrates. Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds. I wonder when the transition of that quote descended into the realm of the meaningless. Or, dare I say it, beyond meaningless.

surely, let alone as a marketing tool but even as a descriptor, it must be dead soon.