How To Become A Celebrity
Posted on September 13th, 2011
What does Kim Kardashian have that you and I ain’t got? Before you hit me with a snide, “go look in the mirror, Brucie boy,” I’ll sweeten the pot. What’s Donny Deutsch got? How about Thomas Friedman? Piers Morgan? Paris Hilton? What do they have that we don’t?
Are they smarter then I am? Well…yeah, Thomas Friedman is. I’d bet Deutsch is, too. Are they better looking? Deutsch and Hilton are, for sure. Are they better at what they do? Again, most of them might be, but Kardashian and Hilton? Please. They don’t do anything to begin with anyway.
So, how come we all know who they are and what they do and yet most people wouldn’t know me if I passed them on the street?
As far as I can figure, there are a few levels of fame and success that are pretty easy to document but not necessarily emulate. They’re the Three “C”s of Celebrity: Circumstance, Competence, and Creation.
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There are three levels of fame and success:
The Three “C”s of Celebrity —
Circumstance, Competence, and Creation.
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Captain Chesley Sullenberger is a Circumstance Celebrity. Sully was pushed to fame and celebrity success the day he safely ditched US Airways flight #1549 in the Hudson River in New York. Is Sullenberger a hero? Of course. Is he a good pilot? Of course.
But is Sully a better pilot than most of the commercial pilots that safely crisscross the country every day? More to the point, is he a better pilot than the officer who was sitting next to him in the co-pilot’s seat that day? Is he an even better than my pilot friends Richard Kane or Tom Cowan? None of us know. And none of us care. Sullenberger is a celebrity because his heroic action on that fateful day saved all 155 lives on his aircraft.
Being a Circumstance Celebrity is an impossible thing to plan. You can prepare for greatness, but there’s no guarantee that the lightning will ever strike. Sullenberger might have trained for an emergency, but he didn’t plan for his brush with fame. Celebrity was suddenly thrust on him by — you guessed it — circumstance.
John Mayer is a Competence Celebrity. He’s a great songwriter and a good singer and a pretty good-looking kid, to boot. He’s got an arm full of trendy tattoos, a head full of wavy locks, a bed full of hot starlets, and a mouth full of stupid comments. And — oh yeah — he’s a damn good guitar player.
But is he a better guitar player than his guitar-picking peers such as John Bonamassa, Kenny Wayne Sheppard or Jonny Lang? For that matter, is Mayer any better than my incredible guitar-playing friends Josh Chasner, Albert Castigilia or Josh Rowand? Again, none of us know. What we do know is that Mayer is a big celebrity because of his guitar playing and his life.
Albert Castiglia
That means that becoming a Competence Celebrity is a tough row to hoe, too. Of course it requires talent, commitment, and perseverance, but making it on talent calls for something else, as well — timing, luck, contacts, opportunity, and that star quality that makes people want to see you do your thing.
Finally, there’s the Created Celebrity. But here the classification bifurcates because there are two clearly different types of Created Celebrity – the Talented Celebrity and the Lucky Celebrity.
Michael Jordan fits the first category of Created Celebrities. Of course Jordan’s a Competence Celebrity too, but a lot of his success came because of the amount of money Nike invested in his brand. From what I understand, Jordan signed a contract with Nike about the same time that Dominique Wilkins signed his contract with Pony. Both players’ deals were for about the same amount of money. But the big difference was that Jordan’s contract included a requirement that Nike spend money promoting him while Wilkins’ contract did not force Pony to do the same. And so years after their slam-dunk rivalry is a memory, Jordan is still a big star and Wilkins…? When was the last time you heard anything about him?
The second subset of Created Celebrities is the Lucky Celebrity. These are the people who should fall down on their knees and thank their lucky stars every single day for their unlikely success. I’m talking about the Kardashian clan, for example, and well as the unlikely cast of the Jersey Shore and Paris Hilton. They’re all popular and lots of people seem to care passionately about what they do, but few of us can actually understand why. It seems as if these celebrities are just famous because they’re famous.
Sometimes celebrities transcend their category and move between them. Justin Timberlake started his career as a laughable Created Celebrity in the boy band ‘N Sync. But even their insipid performances couldn’t dilute Timberlake’s outsized talent; instead, his prodigious abilities propelled him squarely into the Competence category.
By the way, up isn’t the only way to go in celebrity categories. Bruce Jenner started his public career in the Competence category, setting the world record and winning gold in the decathlon at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Now, thanks to his willingness to expose the goings-on of his extended — and dysfunctional — family on Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Jenner’s kept his star shining by sliding solidly into the lucky group.
Before you think this blog is an attack on those people who have made it big in spite of their lack of talent, think again. What I’m really fascinated by is how people get to the place where we all know who they are without the obvious assets you’d think they’d need to succeed, such as talent or brains. Their public capital – the ability to sell products and services and promote their thoughts and ideas – increases significantly with their celebrity status. To me, figuring out how to get people to both know, and care, about who you are and what you do — regardless of how well you do it — is an increasingly crucial part of modern branding.
After all, as David Bowie sang all those years ago, “Fame, it’s not your brain, it’s just the flame.”
15 thoughts on “How To Become A Celebrity”
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By Bruce Turkel
Nice work Bruce. Dominique Wilkins! Excellent evidence.
Ok – My three favorite things about this blog post:
1. the insight
2. the fact that you linked “a bed full of hot starlets”. Which I did not open for fear of what my virgin eyes would see. I would love to see the data on how many did click though. LOL.
3. That posted a picture of Albert Castiglia instead of John Mayer.
Nice!!
* That “you” posted…
Sorry, I guess I have to read your other post about typos again and I guess I can never get a job with you.
I guess I’ll never be famous. Not that anyone would want to see the film, but I’d never x-ray my back side.
And we all thought in the 80s that Madonna was the luckiest untalented!
My day was temporarily bifurcated when I had to go to dictionary dot com and look up the word – I enjoy your blogging bruce – keep it up
“So you want to be a Rock ‘n Roll star, then listen now, to what i say – just get an electric guitar, then take some time ‘n learn how to play”. my thoughts go to “‘n sync”, the Monkees, and all the many “flames” that have made it to “stardom” mostly through the promotions of others who wanted to get them there in order to make money off of them. the promoters who created product and then created the desire for that product…. hey, aren’t you involved with some of that. not that it’s bad – think about the Monkees. they enjoyed getting & being famous. the people who created them had fun making the money, and millions of fans enjoyed liking them and listening to them. maybe the byrds took off in much the same way. “sell your soul to the company, who are waiting there to sell plastic-ware.”
I liked the Monkees! Even though initially they didn’t play their own instruments, and never did really get good at that part, they were a talented bunch of comedic actors who could sing good songs pretty well. With Jim Webb, Boyce and Hart and Neil Diamond providing material, even I would have stood a chance. OK, maybe that’s a bad comparison. So Bruce, is there an object lesson for us regarding self-promotion? I was hoping for some specific guidance. For free.
Two things. First, read “Outliers” by Gladwell if you haven’t already – he discusses success rather than celebrity, but the two paths are often related. Second, curious what category you’d put Deutsch in. I say “created.” He is s master of self-promotion.
Being a celebrity is hard work. Even certified super celebs like Michael Jordon fall off the map when they stop doing the thing that made them famous in the first place.
For a person like Kim Kardashian who is famous for being famous, it’s even harder. She was born with some advantages: her looks and well connected parents, but the fact is, in a world of created-celebs and created celeb wannabes she is on top of the heap and she’s there for a reason. She and her family chose wisely by aligning themselves with the right people when it came time to make a reality show. And she’s continued to make good choices. People I know who have worked with her praise her work ethic.
It’s easy to poke fun at somebody with no particular talent who manages to acquire wealth and fame, but there are many who would love to achieve her dubious distinctions and only she has.
Gonna pick two other bones here.
Michael Jordan might be a lot wealthier thanks to his NIke deal than he would have been had he hooked up with Reebok, but it was more than the sneakers that made him famous. Wilkens was a star, but Jordan was a much better player with six rings.
Wilkins playing career was more comparable to Charles Barkley, who was also far more famous than Wilkins during their careers and is now probably more famous than Jordan (because he continues to work at being famous).
My other disagreement… you’re better looking than Deutsch. You exude confidence whereas cockiness is his stock in trade. Any of the females out there want to weigh in on this one?
Bruce. You even said it yourself in your blog. The daughters of the atty who got Mr Simpson off the hook and the heir to the hotels are simply the progeny of better and smarter people, but nobody otherwise, i.e. Famous for being Famous. The more time we spent on these dim-wits the more they prosper. Let’s change the subject. Yours Mike
I certainly don’t have any clue about becoming a celebrity. My publisher wants me to become a media darling. I’ve had one interview. This means I’m just a “medium darling.” I’m not getting anywhere fast.
As my father used to say, “they’re just lucky their parents were born first!”
Lucky Created Celebrity is the US version of royalty.
Great post Bruce. Bruce Jenner is not only example of a created celebrity. He is excellent example of what happens when you are determined not to make the mistakes others have made. The story behind the story is sports marketer George Wallach of Wallach Entertainment who was Bruce’s manager for years and years. Bruce and George teamed right up right after he won the gold in the 1976 Olympics. Bruce was determined not to let what happen to MarK Spitz happen to him. If you recall Mark won seven gold medals and became overnight celebrity only to crash and burn and make less than smart endorsement deals. For Bruce is It all started with Wheaties “the breakfast of champions” and took off from there. He and George carefully negotiated spokesperson and TV deals. Result. You’ve been dealing with Bruce for three decades. As for his current success as the step-father of the Kardashians you can be sure that he and his step-family are working hard behind to scenes making sure they get far more than just 15 minutes of fame. What are you doing to plan your success?
Bruce,
Thanks for a great post. This is a brilliant line:
“..figuring out how to get people to both know, and care, about who you are and what you do — regardless of how well you do it — is an increasingly crucial part of modern branding.”
Very interesting article and great insight at the end. Thanks.
Rory