The ethics of celebrity gifts

The Ethics of Celebrity Gifts In the world of Hollywood gifting is almost expected but the ethics of the Hollywood world are very blurred. Brands use gifting as a way to get press. Public Relation showrooms are created to get connections with celebrity that brands can be bought. The ethics of Hollywood are questionable but where is the line between okay and wrong.

Gifting from the showroom side is interesting to get used to if you come from a world outside of Hollywood. After working in a Red Light Pr Showroom on sunset gifting became a daily occurrence. Many interns were shocked when sending their first packages full of hundred dollars worth of clothes. Know that when you send it you many only get the celebrity to wear one garment if that and then the rest is just given away to friends. The amount of sales a product can make if only one item is worn if worth the losses. If one showroom is sending celebrities 50 lbs boxes of free clothes so are all the others too. So is it ethical for showrooms to give products away? Is it ethical that the rich who can afford the clothes get them for free and the poor pay the high prices? Does this process get abused?

While at my internship this summer we had celebrities and stylist alike come in and pull clothes for events and photo shoots. When top publist and celebrity stylist would come in we could give them the world. But if say a Disney star stylist would come we would be restricted.

Some stylist would see products and ask if they could pull them to test them out. Others would try to pull garments for other shoots without consent. But the worst client was when a Real Housewife showed up in the showroom. Everybody was supposed to say yes to every request and most of the in showroom gifting we know there is a event or shoot that any items could be

worn but with her she walked in with no event and would only look at things she could take home. In other words she was going shopping on our dime.

This was taken different way in the office some of the account executive refused products when they saw what she was doing others threw products at her. She did give the showroom one instagram picture with the rack of clothes she was taking but that would not really help sell the clothes. This event made me sick to my stomach because I knew if she did this to us she does it to others and she is just trying to see how much she can get. It’s the idea of shopping that if it’s on sale you’re more likely to buy it even if it’s just ok because it’s such a great deal. She found her great deal of free clothes and would take anything she could get. This is where many in the office had conflicting ethics do you refuse and lose a potential high client or do you give her the world. I think you mix it you give her only item you have multiples of the things that are not high cost. I think you also restrict the amount such as one bag or a certain dollar retail cost. This way she gets what she wants but is more selective in the process.

I would say the idea of gifting is ethical to a point it’s like customer service if you want to get customer loyalty you give them a peck or a discount. With celebrity gifting your giving them a few items they like for little cost to your brand. Some brands give their clothes to the showroom for keeps so it makes sense to use these clothes to sweeten a deal. This is one of the few ways a showroom can have customer service because the brands control products and target market. Think showrooms should watch who they are giving items to and where they are giving the left over’s. Our company would pay their interns with one bag of select items after 3 months on the job. Also we would take any unwanted items to the local goodwill.

The inspiration for my creative project was working in the Los Angeles showroom and seeing how different people reacted to different situation based on how they were raised. In a Times article I read about how the rich see greed as good. This means they feel entitled to things no matter the cost. The study tested if people with high end cars or newer cars are more likely to cut people off. The study also tested if the rich were more likely to lie if it benefited them. They tested this by having subject play the role of manager and if they would lie to a potential employee who would take a lower salary for job security with a two year contract.

People from the upper class were more likely to lie knowing they could only offer six month contract in order to get the bonus for pulling a lower salary. The upper class does see where some of their ways are wrong. The study tested if they would help a stranger coming to ask for help most would not until shown a video of poverty then they will almost always help.

This made me wonder about the celebrity culture and if celebrities feel entitled to free goods and services. The ethics of Hollywood are offend blurred because it’s a life of glitz and glamour and constant stoplight. This allows companies to see profit not just in their work but in their entire life like who they date, what they are wearing, where they are traveling to.

This made me think that if you gave your life and privacy away to your work and fame do you deserve the perks? In Ellis Cashmore’s book Celebrity/ Culture he said “All the celebs did was making them available. This is true they opened up themselves to being product endorsers.

But when do you know when they are paid and when they truly like something. Such as hair commercials I am sure most of the women do not dye their hair only with cheap box color yet they are selling you on the idea that they do. I think we have reached a point in society where

we believe false advertising so much we do not know where it begins and end. We now have social media stars being paid to say they like things, Bloggers are sent products to put on their blogs we have reached a point where if you have any success at all you are sponsor.

The reasons companies look for celebrity endorsements is to have a spokesman for their brand this allows them to show the audience there target market in a way that they look up to.

They also choose to do this because of memorably most people know certain celebrities but might not know your product. This gives them a face and creditability to the audience. They problems with doing this are that brands can lose who they truly are behind the celebrity.

Another risk is scandal you cannot control what news gets released about our celebrity and if you are say Nike with Tiger Woods you do not want it to affect your brand and sales just because people do not like him anymore.

At my internship we also looked up stars to gift to and the requirement were shocking they only need 10,000 followers on instagram or other social media that’s it. And some people think that is a lot and it is but when thinking a youtuber Zoella has over 5 million subscribers it’s not that big of a number. This is about the size of a medium size town. So if you want to get free stuff all you have to do is get people to like you. This makes a greedy new job field. The job of fame any way you can get it.

I hope my project brings a new light to this issue. After all the issue has only existed since the 20th century. The current product endorsements deals have just become a norm since the 1980’s. Madonna is credited with creating this current culture. She created fans that wanted to have her life. Beyonce followed in this tradition with her Pepsi endorsement.

I hope my project shows the right and wrong of gifting. I hope I can allow the blurred line to be a bit more black and white. The idea of where is endorsement is ok and the audience is aware and where it goes wrong. I want the project to show that not every celebrity is looking to take advance of the system. But also show the signs of when an endorsement has happened and when it is truly a product is liked.

I think the as with every business there is a right and a wrong way to handle issues and with the celebrity culture being relative new people need to watch themselves and not just believe every product is used just because of likability. People need to remember that celebrities are like walking billboards and are paid to promote products.

References Szalavitz, M., & Szalavitz, M. (2012, January 1). Why the Rich Are Less Ethical: They See Greed as Good | TIME.com. Retrieved October 2, 2014, from http://healthland.time.com/2012/02/28/why-the-rich-are-less-ethical-they-see-greed-as-good/ Cashmore, E. (2006). Celebrity culture. Abingdon [England: Routledge.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Celebrity Endorsements - FrogDog. (2013, February 11).

Retrieved November 13, 2014, from http://frog-dog.com/the-advantages-and-disadvantagesof-celebrity-endorsement