the rise of celebrity commercials
& other misc. economic indicators
Recently online I’ve been seeing people discussing how they knew things were in an economic turndown without needing the news or financial reports to know so.
Hairdressers claimed they could tell as high maintenance colors became far and few between in their bookings. Clients instead choosing to go for colors or cuts that required less overall maintenance or products. Call backs were made to ombre’s becoming popular during the 2007-2008 recession.
Food bloggers and content creators began low or no waste series. Some even trying to create recipes for weeks until their pantries had been cleared out, no groceries – no matter how small or random – were to be purchased until their shelves were empty. Others finding great success featuring strictly dollar-store based recipes.
How did I know things were uncertain? The sheer volume of celebrity ads that flooded every platform I get them served on.
I’m not sure if it was a gradual shift or a switch flipped over night, but suddenly they’re everywhere. Until recently, the only celebrity ads I can recall were all selling weight-related products. Rob Lowe being the face of Atkins or Oprah partnering with Weight Watchers.
Now it covers seemingly any category of things. Tom Brady yapping about some car rental company. Jason Bateman selling us insurance. Matthew McConaughey insisting on something that I can’t decide is a software service or an AI program.
You get the point, right?
Maybe for you it was seeing Nicole Kidman featured in what felt like 5+ movies this past year even though most of them seemed to be the same exact character. Maybe it was seeing the Rock, a bald actor, debuting a hair care line at Target. Maybe it was Ryan Reynolds, actor, face of a gin-brand, part-owner of a soccer team, now decide to really push his phone line.
Whatever it was for you – I’d love to hear.
Anyways, I find these varying perspectives about the world’s economic states to be fascinating. I have ever since I read about the correlation between popular women’s hemlines with financially robust periods of time. Read here if you’d like.
Long story short: the shorter the hem the better the business!
But what’s the point? Tina Fey mentioned a similar thought on Amy Poehler’s new podcast, Good Hang, recently. When is it enough? (ironic, I know)
When did we, the greater public and primary consumer of said content, decide we wanted this from them? Will the pendulum swing at some point and we will look to these actors and scoff at them? Denounce their credibility as actors and celebrities based off these clear money grabs?
Does any of this even matter? (answer: no)
What matters most is that we’re aware. The fact being that historically, most recessions and economic downturns last about ten months. I guess the point is better times – and hopefully better advertisements and movies – are coming.
I have no clue how I’ve gone from writing about how I would’ve rewritten an SNL weekend update joke to whip cream to this – but here we are.
As always – thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed! I’m trying my best to get back into writing more routinely but have been struggling balancing it with my travel and work schedule recently. Any tips to stay on track are welcome!