Celebrities, Please!

Advertisements often lead us to believe that celebrities are ideal human beings, flawless forms worthy of mass envy due to their social status. In the eyes of a consumer, they sit at the pinnacle of a capitalist society. And yet, I often wonder how these supposedly “superior beings” receive advertisements; if they have everything, then how do advertisements work their magic by proposing that their lives lack certain commodities? How do they project anxiety onto the object of perfection? And do celebrities even see themselves within altered photographs that purport their flawlessness? In other words, what are you really advertising as a celebrity: the product or yourself?

I tend towards the later interpretation, and I feel as though celebrities do receive mixed messages from advertisements. Being able to purchase any commodity that associates its usage with love, friendship, and truth doesn’t necessarily guarantee these experiences. "Money can’t buy happiness," as the old saying goes. As a result, celebrities are equally susceptible to feeling depression and low-self worth that advertisements engender in the common man; just look at how many celebrities have died from drug overdose and alcohol abuse. (Need I mention anorexia for the ladies?) They know the true emptiness of consumer culture, because they are able to buy everything. The insatiability of their desires and continuance of commonplace human anxieties showcases the hollow promises advertisers are willing to make just to make a buck.
Now maybe this idea of the depressed upper class, or bourgeoisie, is a myth propagated in order to make the proletariat more appreciative of what they have. Then again, it could hold some water. A few days ago I looked up Japanese advertisements with famous celebrities in them on YouTube. These celebrities know no shame. They are willing to sell their identities to advertisement agencies in order to push products in a foreign country full of consumers willing to gobble up anything they tout. I can only imagine what it must feel like to have your sense of self chipped away at by vulture-like capitalist societies around the world! Sturken and Cartwright say, “When we consume commodities, we thus consume them as commodity signs—we aim to acquire, through purchasing a product, the meaning with which it is encoded.” (206) Therefore, if a celebrity associates himself with a certain product, then consumers of that product are in a sense eating away at the celebrity’s identity. Before the advent of the Internet, celebrities could hide their self-defamation from fans back in the States, but now it’s out in the open. I suggest you watch some of these Japanese ads; they’re hilarious (and sort of sad), especially the ones with our esteemed governor in them.