Understanding Our Celebrity Craving and Celebrity Eyewear Need
Written by Shirley on January 10, 2010 – 9:57 pm -I read a great article by Neal Gabler in Newsweek last month about understanding our craven celebrity culture.
George Clooney wearing Izod by ClearVision Optical
It is interesting and we need to understand it because we see this so much with eyewear. Every eyewear company wants George Clooney, Lindsay Lohan, Bragelina, etc. etc. to be photographed wearing their brand of eyewear no matter how badly behaved that celebrity might be! (I am not saying that any of those mentioned above are badly behaved, well one maybe!) WHY WHY WHY? Because it is all about MARKETING and good marketing needs to be entertaining! What is more entertaining than celebrities?
Gabler says that “Celebrity” is actually a new art form that competes with—and often supersedes—more traditional entertainments like movies, books, plays, and TV shows (and the occasional golf tournament), and that performs, in its own roundabout way, many of the functions those old media performed in their heyday: among them, distracting us, sensitizing us to the human condition, and creating a fund of common experience around which we can form a national community.
He says “Celebrity” has tremendous advantages over its more traditional, and fictional, competitors. For one thing, celebrity doesn’t have to create the pretense of reality; it is real. The stories are enacted in life, which is why, aside from the inherent drama of hookups and breakups, sex has featured so prominently in celebrity narratives. (So has violence.) There is an almost voyeuristic frisson in knowing that this isn’t simulated as it is in the movies. Nor does celebrity have to labor at creating identification; celebrity protagonists are almost, by definition, culturally preselected on the basis that we identify with them (Everyman) or enjoy a vicarious attachment through them (Superman). And because there are real consequences to the events in the narratives—people actually divorce or fall off the wagon or die—something is always at stake. We don’t have to suspend our disbelief.
Source: Newsweek.
Picture: Courtesy of ClearVision Optical
To read the whole article go to http://www.newsweek.com/id/226457
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Tags: Eyewear, MarketingPosted in Marketing | 2 Comments »
By Bill Gerber on Jan 11, 2010 | Reply
Great article, thanks!
The best way to capitalize on celebrity eyewear exposure is to prominently display interchangeable signage where pages from magazines, newspapers, the internet, can be placed. To keep the imagery fresh, select the most celebrity aware member of your staff and make them in charge; they’ll love it. When people see what George, Brad, Lindsay or Angelina (yes I am on a first name basis)are wearing while in your store, they will inevitably ask for, and more often than not, buy it. I remmber receiving a call from someone at the Classical Eye in San Diego the day after we installed sign holders saying that the featured items were selling and more often than not, to middle aged men. Go figure, they too want to look hot!
Thanks for all the great articles, tips, advice Shirley and Cathy. You are the best!
By Shirley on Jan 11, 2010 | Reply
Thanks Bill, we appreciate the reinforcement of the point the post was making and of course, your support.