The New New Sensibility: Selling Celebrity/Celebrities Selling on Digital Media

Abstract

This chapter considers the role of social influencers who sell their own branded products and products they endorse through the use of media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, as well as sell through dedicated websites that as “owned media” become forums through which celebrities and other media figures can communicate with their fans and followers in order to promote the purchase of products and services. As an example of the celebrity-industrial complex, the chapter presents a case study of Kim Kardashian, the embodiment of what it means to be a celebrity brand in twenty-first-century online culture. Such buying opportunities presented by influential others allow the follower to “label” themselves as a fan and craft an identity based on attitudes and values put forth by the celebrity.