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(upbeat music)
What's up, guys? Michael here.
Now, before we get into it,
I want you to stick around till the end of the video
'cause we have some news about our Patreon page
and I am excited to share it with you.
Today, I wanna tell ya about an exciting new product:
Sartre Shades, the only glasses designed
to help you watch YouTube videos
while filtering out all gestures of bad faith
and denials of your brutal existential freedom.
Nah, just kiddin'.
But, I do wanna talk about celebrity endorsements.
They're nothing new.
Early star Fatty Arbuckle was hawking Murad brand cigarettes
back in 1905 after all.
But, we're totally fascinated by a new trend
that's taking the celebrity world by storm:
endorsing cryptocurrency and NFTs.
NFTs, or non fungible tokens,
are digital deeds to digital assets.
Think of it as the deed to a house,
but that deed is made of computer code
and, instead of a house you can live in,
you're now the proud owner of a JPEG!
NFTs are purchased almost exclusively with,
you guessed it, crypto.
And, because the crypto market is so new
and mostly unregulated, NFTs are ripe for hype, speculation,
and fortunes to be gained or, as many experts warn, lost.
Side note: If you wanna learn more about the NFT market,
check out our video on it and,
if you can't even carry on a conversation about crypto,
we've got a video for you too.
But, you know, please finish this one first. Please?
Lately, it seems like celebrities
are actually making fetch happen with NFTs.
- Stop trying to make fetch happen.
It's not going to happen.
- [Michael] Paris Hilton, for instance,
has appeared on Jimmy Fallon multiple times
to talk about them.
Initially, to school him on the topic,
then to compare her Bored Ape Yacht Club
NFT artwork with his.
- We're part of the same community.
- I know! - We're both apes.
- Yes! I love it!
- Here, this is my ape. - This is yours.
- [Michael] And, eventually, to surprise the audience
with NFT art of their very own, which she designed herself.
Paris, we have no notes.
- You love it so much
I actually wanna give you the first one.
(audience applauds) (audience cheers)
- I would be honored.
- And I wanna give one to everyone in the audience.
(audience applauds) (audience cheers)
- [Michael] All of this is treated as if it were normal,
as if she were promoting, say, her new book,
album, or line of designer YouTube sunglasses.
Fortune has even gone so far as to name Hilton one
of the 50 most influential people in NFTs
and it's not just Paris and Jimmy.
John Stamos bought an NFT profile pic.
Reese Witherspoon just optioned IP made
from an NFT for a film
and Matt Damon used his 35 year old career to promote crypto
at the Super Bowl.
- Fortune favors the brave. (dramatic music)
- [Michael] And, of course, there's Larry David,
who's spending his golden years doing this.
- Eh, I don't think so and I'm never wrong about this stuff.
Never. (upbeat music)
- So, what's the deal?
Why are celebrities gaga for NFTs and crypto in general
and what does it say about our fame hungry society?
Let's find out in this "Wisecrack Edition:"
"Celebrities and NFTs: A Match Made in Hell?"
But, before we dive in,
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And now back to the show.
Celebrity is as old as NFTs are new.
Some consider Alexander the Great the first celebrity ever
thanks to his power, riches,
and face pretty enough to slap on a coin.
But, celebrity culture as we know it today,
as scholar Thomas Mole argues,
really got going in the Romantic era,
when certain authors started cultivating public personality,
something we might now call personal brands.
Like Lord Byron,
who became famous not just for his dank poems,
but also for the way he dressed and the way he behaved,
including being a bit of a dirtbag with the ladies.
The 19th century brought the emergence of photography,
which changed everything.
Indeed, Abraham Lincoln personally credited a photographer
of a widely circulated image of him
as a chief reason he was elected president.
While painted portraiture had long been a thing
for the rich and famous,
photography newly allowed
for the mass dissemination of images,
often images of humans, especially famous humans.
With each subsequent technology that followed,
images and then moving images of celebrity became more
and more accessible until we wind up
with Cristiano Ronaldo setting the record
for the most Instagram followers ever.
And, the more images of celebrities circulated,
the bigger and broader celebrity became
and this makes sense.
After all, celebrity is all about being visible, being seen.
In this sense, celebrities can cynically
be considered commodities that are consumed,
ie, looked at by the masses and,
as scholar Pramod Nayar points out
in his book "Seeing Stars,"
there's not really a meaningful difference between, say,
a promotional campaign for Diet Coke
and a promotional campaign
for a living, breathing celebrity.
After all, "Celebrities," he says,
"are materials to be branded and sold.
Fame is a manufactured product,
manufactured in and by a mass media for public consumption."
A tabloid magazine, for instance,
may be its own standalone commodity.
But, it's predicated on even more commodities:
The celebrities being reported on.
Because celebrities are essentially commodities themselves,
perhaps it's no surprise that they've long been seen
as essential to creating and sustaining the demand necessary
for the consumer economy.
As scholar P. David Marshall puts it,
"Celebrity taught generations how to engage
and use consumer culture to make oneself."
Ie, celebrity and consumerism were a match made
in capitalist heaven, which is also known as regular hell.
(man screams)
This was happening back in those Romantic years
when people bought ruffley shirts to make themselves look
a touch more like Lord Byron, for instance.
But, that was nothing compared
to how the inextricable relationship between celebrity
and consumer culture has grown in the years that followed.
Magazines from the 1940s reported breathlessly
on how stars spend their fortune,
showcasing their glamorous homes
and enviable spending habits.
First Lady Jackie Kennedy's fondness for Chanel suits,
among other sleek designs,
practically defined sixties fashion.
"MTV Cribs" showed us that the ultimate ideal
of a dope ass house might have
its own dedicated lingerie closet or 35 bathrooms.
Basically, it's a version of monkey see,
monkey really wants to do.
But, instead of foraging for bananas,
we're reaching for new markers of class and taste.
- I saw Cady Heron wearing army pants and flip flops.
So I bought army pants and flip flops.
- And nowhere is the relationship between consumer culture
and celebrity more obvious than with celebrity endorsements.
So, why does celebrity endorsement sell everything
from cars to Coors Light so well?
Nayer argues that it's because of the phenomenon
of transferred celebrity, ie, the product becomes associated
with the qualities of the human celebrity.
So, let's say it's 2004.
You love Britney Spears and you want everyone to know it
and to also associate you with how cool she is.
By buying a pair of the Sketchers she recently endorsed
in the pages of "Teen People,"
you're trying to imbue yourself with as much
of Britney's bubblegum charm, as you can,
even if you don't explicitly realize
that's what you're doing.
Now, Britney is a celebrity in her own right
because she's a hard working triple threat.
But if she's out here selling Sketchers,
she's imbuing it with clout and those sweet,
sweet kicks are reinforcing that clout right back at her.
To paraphrase scholar Richard Dyer,
celebrities are both labor,
ie, varying combinations of talent, hotness,
work ethic, and luck, and the thing that labor produces,
ie, fame and fortune.
So, it follows that when people
with major fan bases endorse a product
not only does the celebrity get more attention
in the public eye,
but the product itself will see a boost
in profits and prestige.
What Babe Ruth did for cola or Oprah did for Weight Watchers
or Michael Jordan did for Nike is something the makers
of NFTs are ready to harness for a new century.
Now, you've seen Justin Bieber somehow make Crocs seem cool
and a water bottle became spiritually rejuvenating
because of Jennifer Aniston.
But, something different happens with crypto and NFTs,
which, after, all don't tangibly exist in the real world.
Because there's so intangible,
these non fungible tokens are ironically very fungible
in terms of what they can potentially signify.
When Paris endorses them, they're glamorous.
When Spike Lee endorses crypto, it's righteous and bold.
When Gwyneth Paltrow does it,
you're living that crunchy yet chic holistic lifestyle.
Crypto and, by extension, NFTs are the perfect empty vessel
upon which to project a celebrity's entire affect.
And nowadays there's an NFT happy celebrity
for seemingly every demographic.
Even Eric Andre's into it!
Who would've thought absurdist comedians
even knew about NFTs?
But, when you're buying an NFT
to emulate your favorite celebrity,
it's an even bigger dopamine hit
than buying those adorable Spears Sketchers.
You feel closer to them and, more importantly,
more similar to them than ever before.
Before you only had the pleasure
of consuming like a celebrity.
Now, you have the pleasure of investing like a celebrity.
- What? Here, high-end, VIP, exclusive!
- That's liable to make you feel richer
and more glamorous than say drinkin' a Pepsi at a protest.
After all, as Nayer says,
"Celebrities embody an abstract desire to achieve,
to be recognized, to be wealthy.
Poverty-stricken celebrities would be hard to find.
Celebrities represent what people aspire
to be or to possess."
And, in a world where financial security is anything
but easy to come by,
emulating the investment choices
of an already wealthy celebrity might not seem
like the worst option.
Now, we're not grumps.
If you wanna smell like Mariah Carey
or buy car insurance like Shaq, have a ball!
But, there issues of accountability
at stake when celebrities use their power
to change our consumption habits.
What was supposed
to be a historically significant Tiffany and Co. Campaign
starring Beyonce and Jay-Z got a bit thorny
when the 128 karat yellow diamond Beyonce wore turned out
to be, for all intents and purposes,
a 30 million vintage blood diamond.
FYI, Bey and Jay, released a statement
denouncing the jewelry.
Or, consider this adorable retro ad
of Lucille Ball shilling Chesterfields.
So cute and so cigarettes.
And we'll keep our adjectives to ourselves
about the results of diet pills and flat tummy teas.
And maybe that's why the celeb sensation
surrounding NFTs feels so uncomfortable.
Diet pills might give you the runs,
but NFTs are a different beast altogether.
At best, they're too new to fully judge
as a major investment and, at worst, by many accounts,
they're a pyramid scheme.
It's worth noting that celebrity Ben McKenzie,
aka Ryan from "The OC," is getting attention lately
for actually dunking on NFTs.
Welcome to the off chain, (beep)!
But, think about it.
When you buy one of Paris Hilton's
bedazzled boss babe hoodies,
you have a hundred bucks at stake, which isn't nothing,
but it probably isn't all of your rent money.
But, when she essentially recruits you
by way of a talk show to buy an NFT,
she's doing something else entirely.
See, NFT owners have essentially banked
on a speculative asset.
If Paris wants to see the value of that asset grow,
she needs the general public
to flood the NFT market with capital,
essentially to bolster her major investment.
And that's where things get tricky.
The allure of feeling like your lifestyle is closer
to hers or to any rich and famous person's has the capacity
to wreck your finances and that's what we're seeing unfold
with Kim Kardashian's endorsement of EthereumMax.
It's a developing story at the time of this video,
but the TLDR is this:
Kim uploaded a sponsored Instagram story
promoting EthereumMax right after the company
had burned half of their available Bitcoin.
That means they put them
in an essentially locked crypto wallet
where they can't be distributed.
That created market scarcity, which drove up the price
for people who were eager to buy EthereumMax
after being influenced by Kim's story.
She and other famous influencers are currently being sued
because EthereumMax's prices shot up 1300%
before totally crashing a month later.
The lawsuit alleges that it was a pump and dump scheme.
As far as we can tell,
the people who bought high watched their big investments
basically light on fire in front of their eyes.
But, in addition to being morally dubious,
this whole situation is also just really, really surreal.
Think about who Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian are:
Famous people who literally invented their celebrity
out of nothing or, that is,
became famous purely by being seen.
And here they are endorsing a product that,
by many estimations, is essentially also made up.
Is this the most meta thing ever? Maybe.
And we think that's best understood through a concept
from classical political economy: use value.
See, use value, as the name suggests,
is a measurement of how an object derives value
from its usefulness.
This pair of galoshes?
Great for keeping my feet dry in the rain.
This spoon?
Excellent for shoveling cheese whiz into my mouth.
Yeah, I eat cheese is with a spoon. I'm not a barbarian.
I don't put cans in my mouth.
Everything that humans consider valuable has a use value,
going all the way up to actual people.
The use value of Zendaya for breaking your heart on screen,
the use value of Doja Cat for writin' total bangers,
and the use value of Serena Williams
for changing the game of tennis.
When these celebrities endorse things,
there are two use values at play:
that of the celebrity, ie, their fame
and respective talents,
and that of the product, say,
the beautifying effects of mascara
or the refreshment of some Frost Arctic Blitz.
But, for celebs like Paris and Kim,
their fame is a purely ephemeral commodity
with no obvious use value.
Their celebrity isn't linked to tangible talents beyond,
you know, sharing really innovative thoughts on work ethic.
- Get your (beep) ass up and work.
- And this is where things get even more meta.
Marxist economics talks about what happens
when a commodity's value becomes detached
from the actual thing that can be bought, sold or traded.
Like when a pair of Nikes becomes less
about helping you avoid ankle sprains
and more about what it represents:
the fearlessness of Serena Williams.
In this way,
the commodity essentially becomes a theological entity,
something that transcends use value.
It's now a spiritual thing
with what one German economist called
metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties.
So, we have two things.
One, celebrities without use value or celebrities
that have been constructed out
of thin air using their clout to push,
two, NFTs, which have a use value
that's arguably also constructed out of thin air.
The whole thing starts to feel
like a digital house of cards.
If celebrities who have value simply
for having value are now pushing digital commodities
that also have value simply for having value,
it seems like maybe we're all
just emperors without any clothes.
But, what do you guys think?
If it brings someone actual joy
to feel like they are a player in the marketplace
on par with Paltrow or Eric Andre,
is there really any harm in it?
Should we just let people enjoy things
and say a little prayer that it doesn't lead
to their financial ruin?
And, if it does, should celebrities feel bad about that
or even be held accountable?
Let us know in the comments.
Okay, I said at the top I wanted to tell you
about our new Patreon page and now I'm gonna do that.
We've recently updated our Patreon.
We added new levels, new perks, and new exclusive content.
I think that you will all like it a lot.
So, let's say you want to know more
about how we make our videos,
what goes into the research and the writing, we gotcha.
We're startin' a new series on the Patreon page
where we're gonna interview writers and editors
and researchers who all make these videos
and get a more in-depth picture of what goes into them,
on their research, the ideas,
what gets left on the cutting room floor, all that stuff.
Now, if you ever watch the videos
and want more in depth discussion of some
of the philosophy we talk about, I got you there.
I'm gonna start doing a regular series of sort
of philosophy office hours, where I'm gonna dig deeper
into a lot of the stuff we talk about on the channel
and a lot of the philosophy and concepts
that go into the videos.
I'll get into that.
I'm also gonna create space for question and answer stuff.
So, you can just ask me stuff and I can try to answer it,
all without having to take on any more student loan debt.
So, yay. But that's all on our Patreon page now.
Please check it out and,
if you're already one of our patrons, first, thank you.
Second, check it out as well.
There might be some new stuff that you don't know about
that you'll be excited to see.
As always, thanks for watching. Later.
(funky music)