Celebrity and public image
And now for a post combining my two favorite things: public relations and entertainers. I’ve always been fascinated with celebrity branding. Whether it be an actor or a musician, it’s not just the talent that is needed to achieve success in entertainment. Image is everything!
When companies choose which public figures they will sign for endorsement deals, they use what is known as a Q-Score; ratings of how well-known a person is and how well-liked.
So what are the characteristics that make a celebrity likeable? Shallow as may be, attractiveness is an obvious reason why we adore certain celebrities. Channing Tatum is a great actor but a large part of his popularity has to do with his phenomenally good looks. As Jonah Hill sarcastically said when awarding with him the Trailblazer Award at the MTV Movie Awards “a super good-looking guy who becomes the lead in movies… that is an amazing trail blaze!”
We of course like our entertainers to be talented. Back to Jonah, who may not be considered a heartthrob but is arguably one of the best comedic actors of his generation. Jonah won an award for his role in Wolf of Wall Street at that same show. When the actor and writer lost serious lbs a few years ago, many people claimed he was not as funny and not as likeable. So what gives?
If a celebrity has everything going for them, it’s almost as if we resent them a bit. Jonah was always the funny, fat guy but after he lost weight some fans could not accept the change in his image. At least in my opinion, Jonah has remained just as hysterical despite being a healthier version of himself. As Lorenzo advised Colagio in A Bronx Tale, “They want to see you do good, but never better than them.” But it’s not that we don’t want to see celebrities excel at what they do.
Take Jennifer Lawrence for instance. The bubbly Oscar-winner cinches nominations and awards almost every season and we love her for it! She has been named one of the Most Desirable Women by Maxim magazine and when #WomenCrushWednesday roles around she fills up all of our Instagram feeds. Why did Anne Hathaway not get the same response from the public during her Les Miserables award-season run?
People found her to be fake and over-rehearsed when she accepted her awards whereas Jennifer Lawrence was candid, goofy, and unique all wrapped into one. Anne Hathaway comes off as a goodie-two shoes who wants to seem surprised when she wins but would seem more shocked if she didn’t. She is a phenominal actress by all means but the majority of moviegoers are admittidely “Hatha-haters.”
American popular culture always roots for the underdog… the “average joe” if you will. The best thing a celebrity can be is charming and modest. In most but not all circumstances, when modesty is lost, the celebrity loses their likeability.
A great example of this would be Taylor Swift. Trying to judge her level of likeability is difficult. She certainly has some of the most devoted fans in the world. Amongst her peers, she is one of the most-respected entertainers in the industry in both the country music and pop music worlds. She has quite the list of celebrity besties from VS models Karly Kloss and Lily Aldridge to Selena Gomez and Sarah Hyland. She began as a little-known country singer who sang of teenage heartbreak. As time went on she began to dominate every award show, sold out arenas around the world, and broke record sales. Then came the infamous VMA/Kanye West incident (which mostly just made the rapper really unlikeable). A series of celebrity boyfriends lead to high-profile breakups in which she candidly wrote chart-topping songs about. Many people found her openness on the topic refreshing and relatable. Others thought she took advantage of her exes.
Don’t go thinking that those disliked celebrities aren’t laughing all the way to the bank. Sometimes being controversial and loathed is exactly what a celebrity aspires to do. Again – image is everything! Kanye West knows what his ignorant remarks are going to and it clearly works for him.
And finally the absolute worst thing a celebrity can do is complain about the privileged lives that they lead. Gwyneth Paltrow has pissed off working woman and mothers in particular. with her statements. Such claimes included that there is no excuse for a mother not to be in shape and that being an actress is harder than having an office job. She probably could have worded that a bit differently.
Different images work for different people. Give some of these celebrities a break though – despite making a lot more money than we ever could imagine and leading glitzy/glamorous lives, they are real people too! Don’t be a bully sitting on your computer all day commenting about their issues – instead make positive changes in your own life.
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