Heel to Hero…
Going from Heel to Hero and visa-versa has not only become predictable but is occurring at dizzying speeds. I think this phenomenon is grossly underappreciated. Not only is it changing how we view good news and bad news but it is shaping current events and enabling shocking new discourse in popular culture and marketing.
A perfect example is Colin Kaepernick. When he was first caught sitting in protest during the National Anthem at a pre-season football game, the world all but tore him a new asshole. Within two weeks he’s on the cover of Time magazine and high school athletes around the country are emulating his behavior. Last week his jersey outsold all others. Pretty remarkable given he’s not even the starting quarterback for the team. Colin Kaepernick went from a goat to a God. Just like that.
The confluence of social media, proliferate video, celebrity obsession, reality TV and other factors have created a perfect storm, enabling controversial behavior and in turn changing our perceptions of what constitutes good and bad, right and wrong, and it’s doing so in real time!
Look at what a sordid sex tape of Kim Kardashian started. Once vilified and humiliated, that negative take has long been forgotten. She and her get are some of the most famous people on Earth.
The camera loves errant behavior. And society loves cameras. Ergo anyone can be a “star.” Provided you punch through. Dropping your pants or taking a stance are two surefire ways of getting that attention.
Courting controversy is not the real news, however. Like many, I have been writing about this for years.
What’s especially fascinating is how predictable the pattern has become. And the subsequent opportunities this affords. Marketers can take more and bigger chances. So what if a campaign or Tweet creates a shit storm. Within hours, defenders will join the fray. Even turn the tide. One can game public opinion. Betting on the inevitable backlash should be considered strategy from the get-go. Whether we like it or not, this is happening. Certain groups will take advantage while others stand by gaping.
(Author’s note: I’m avail for copy, content creation & creative leadership: https://steffanwork.wordpress.com)
The Kardashians have always been about fetishizing women. Caitlyn is merely another example.
June 3, 2015
Girls, Girls…
And more girls.
A while back, Kim Kardashian made a sex video with some random bozo and became improbably famous, fetishizing her big boobs and ass. Shortly thereafter, the E! network launched the “groundbreaking” reality series, Keeping up with the Kardashians, fetishizing not only Kim’s big boobs and ass but her sisters as well. We also met her mom and dad and other bozos and ding-a-lings.
Later, Kim has sex with a decidedly non-random bozo and new husband, Kanye West, creating a baby, enabling her/them yet even more fame…if that’s even possible.
But stop the presses!
Because now her stepfather, Bruce Jenner has officially changed his sex to female, breaking the Internet. A “Sideshow Bob” for years on The Kardashians, “Call-Me-Caitlyn” Jenner is now the biggest get since, well, Kim Kardashian.
What do they all have in common? Sex. Having it. Changing it. Selling it. The entire Kardashian dynasty is built on sex. I don’t know if that’s cool or pathetic. Likely both. But it’s a stone-cold fact.
Sex sells. Nothing new about that. And in the first years of the 21st century nobody does it better than the Kardashians.
But what provokes me is the cloak of gravitas so many people are wont to attach to this collection of fetishes. The Kardashians are entrepreneurs! Kim is a social media expert! Caitlyn-Bruce Jenner is a brave pioneer. I’m not denying they have untold fame, followers and fortune I’m just calling bullshit on the agenda. The Kardashians want attention on an epic scale. If along with the material benefits come various side effects resembling social change so be it. It gives the Today Show a new angle into this clan morning moms can appreciate.
The Kardashians are nothing without parlaying their boobs and asses. Which now includes Caitlyn.
Classy!
Flipping through magazines the other day, I discovered a new print ad for yet another Anheuser Busch beer product, this one called Black Crown -partly because it is made with caramel malt and partly because, I suppose to the brewery, it sounded cool.
When coming across new ads, I tend to read the body copy and this one was no exception. Take note of the following sentence. “Toasted, chosen and handpicked by the loud the savvy and the famous.” Huh? What the hell does that even mean? On a literal level, the first three verbs confuse because they are identical to language used when describing the process of making beer. Here, however, it means something else, perhaps far worse than brew-making clichés. Finish the line. Take a look at those three adjectives: “loud, savvy and famous.” If that’s not a definition for “douchebag” I don’t know what is.
Ripped body copy not in good taste…
Loud? Are they kidding? Since when is being loud indicative of good quality? And how on earth does it juxtapose with savvy? Oh, I know. When you’re famous. Like the Kardashians.
I hate this copy so much. Not only is it attitudinal and hyperbolic but it flags poseur for both the beer and the drinker. Having worked on advertising for AB and Miller Coors, I know firsthand the client is either oblivious to this vulgarity or, in truth, encourages it. They’ve spent billions of marketing dollars cultivated the poseur alpha male and made beer after beer just for him.
Savvy plan: “Maybe if we’re louder we’ll get famous!”
Here’s my take on what Black Crown is really saying: Dude- If you’re a backward-baseball cap wearing, collar popping white male who thinks he’s a player this is the beer for you! Show you’re frat buds that you’ve most def arrived by paying 75 cents more for a bottle of beer. Black Crown tastes like Guinness, only stupider!
I get it. AB wants guys to think drinking Black Crown is a privilege, like getting into the VIP room at some awful nightclub. Fine. But if loud, savvy and famous is the new definition of quality then we are in big trouble.
Official beer of the VIP lounge!
The Happy Soul Industry
The Last Generation
Gods of Advertising 