the trend prophet

is it time for a celebrity showdown?

Big Brother, The Games, Celebrity Fit Club are all reminders of how celebrity continues to loom large in UK culture.

We’ve suffered dodgy fairytale weddings in Hello and OK!, Heat’s shock horror tales that some celebs go out without make-up and countless TV shows where celebrities play on islands, farms, in ballrooms and athletic tracks. Will it ever end?

But are there stirrings underfoot? The cult of celebrity may be a trend that’s facing a backlash. Prominent trendwatching writers, such as The Times’ Tina Gaudoin, have noted that our culture has a ‘sad celeb fixation’, but that ‘we might be getting to the point at which it’s cool not to care about celebrity’ (Source: The Times, Dec 2005).

Mocking celebs

High street fashion favourite FCUK started their own celebrity offensive by producing an in-store brochure in Autumn 2005 that mocked the celebrity magazine format.

If our obsession with the latest hunk from Emmerdale or, more bizarrely, Chantelle, the BB dollybird who wasn’t a celeb, but now is a celeb, because she fooled other celebs into thinking she was a celeb  (got that?) has trickled down as far as it can go; what are the implications for marketers?

On the celeb case

Ever since the likes of Max Factor twigged that movie stars sell make-up in the 1930s, celebrities have been prominent in co-branding marketing strategies. Consumers want what they have. They want to connect with a celebrity and be part of their lifestyle, buying the products that they use or endorse can help consumers feel they are achieving this.

But celebrities are expensive. It is unlikely that the marketing manager of a SME could regularly afford their fees. Besides, if the current zeitgeist is correct, celebs are ‘so over’, and if every Tom, Dick or reality TV contestant is now a celeb – will there still be kudos in affiliating your brand with one?