Taking the shine off shallow celebrity culture by Bronwyn Williams

TAKING THE SHINE OFF SHALLOW CELEBRITY CULTURE

“At a time when unemployment has hit a record high with thousands furloughed and facing economic uncertainty, and with mounting death tolls throughout the country, it can be rage-inducing to see Madonna rambling about the coronavirus being a great equaliser from a luxury gilded bathtub.” ~ Fast Company business magazine

BY BRONWYN WILLIAMS

The trend away from shallow fame worship has only been accelerated by Covid-19 lockdowns which revealed celebrities in their natural habitat, sans make-up, sans smoke and mirrors, sans shiny public-relations-perfected facades.

In their homes, through their webcams and smartphones, the world’s rich and famous came across just like the rest of us, shattering the fourth wall between the constructed glamour of stardom and mundane reality of the human lives behind the big names of the global A-list. We could not help but notice both how ordinary celebrities are as people, and how extraordinary their excessively pampered and privileged lives are compared to the reality of the majority of stuck at home in cramped apartments with no live-in help and rapidly diminishing bank balances— and we found neither of those aspects very flattering or very appealing. A good example here was when Wonder Woman star, Gal Gadot and her celebrity friends decided to sing John Lennon’s Imagine, on Instagram in the middle of the peak of the Covid-19 crisis. The attention-seeking stunt, which was rather obviously intended to capitalise on the crisis to inflate their own popularity, backfired and accidentally exposed both how out of touch the rich and famous really are - and how much attention they think they deserve from their fans. The result was uncomfortable at best, downright cringeworthy at worst. Celebrity culture is clearly not an “essential service” in a crisis; and its showing in the numbers. According to FCB, only 4% of SA Gen Zs say celebrities influence their decisions (compared with 30% of international Gen Zs). This finding was backed up by the Flux Trends Generation ZA survey, which found that young South Africans look up to politicians, activists, older family members and community leaders rather than “stars” for mentoring and motivation. Indeed, younger South Africans, living

The big take-out:

It is not as easy to buy attention and loyalty. Attention needs to be earned.

in the world’s most unequal society, are growing wary of celebrity culture. Although they do look up to certain celebrities; the sorts of celebrities they follow tend towards the powerful (politicians, peers and activists) rather than the merely popular (manufactured movie stars and musicians). They are hyper-aware of celebrities being paid to endorse a product and skeptical of influencer marketing and paid celebrity sponsorships. This should hardly come as a surprise. Brought up on a cultural diet of usergenerated YouTube and TikTok content, as opposed to professionally produced mass-media broadcasts and network television, today’s youth expects to see people doing amazing things rather than spoiled celebrities getting paid exorbitant amounts to shill the artefacts of conspicuous consumption. A full 63% of Gen Zs would prefer to see social media influencers in ads over mainstream celebrities. What this means for brands and media owners is that it is not as easy to simply buy attention and loyalty from young customers than it used to be. Attention needs to be earned. They have seen behind the stage lights, and they are unimpressed with the performance. Bronwyn Williams is a trend translator and future finance specialist at Flux Trends.