It’s not what you know; it’s who you know. Or maybe, in 2022, it’s how many people you have following you on your social channels.
In a recent email from Girlboss, I read about Kim Kardashian’s newest job title: “Chief Taste Consultant” for Beyond Meat. As noted in Bloomberg, Beyond Meat shares jumped 7% with their newest brand ambassador. However, what really caught my attention about the story was the job title itself – which is laughable upon watching the advertising campaign. For those who haven’t seen it, Kardashian “tastes” some Beyond Meat, only the camera never actually captures her taking a bite. The internet was very quick to call her out for “fake chewing,” but Kardashian has since confirmed she did eat the food, she promises.
Kardashian is not the only member of her famous family with an executive or C-suite job title. Kendall Jenner was recently named Creative Director for luxury fashion brand FWRD. Appointed to the role last September, Jenner’s job description, shared as part of the announcement, lists the scope of her duties, which span across the website, brand edits, marketing, partnerships, and PR activations.
Many celebrities hold positions like this, and this is not a hot, new trend. Fashion houses have long been known to use famous designers on household brands as a way of elevating, lifting, or pivoting their brand direction. Other celebrities in C-level roles or high-level partnerships include Beyonce with Ivy Park at Adidas, Bella Hadid as the COO of a drinks brand, Emily Ratajkowski as the Creative Director of Loops Beauty, and Lady Gaga with a stint as Creative Director at Polaroid.
But what does this mean for the Creative Director role going forward? Content is being consumed from different platforms in different ways. In December, TikTok overtook Google as the most popular domain (Forbes). So, are social media stars the solution to a business’s fast-falling stock prices? Possibly. But what about those candidates with years of industry experience, who are climbing the ladder in a more traditional way? Does this mean they’re destined for sharing their hard-earned seat, or in danger of being replaced by a social star with a higher following? And an envy-inducing salary to match?
Back in 2013, Kanye West made his thoughts on celebrity C-suite partnerships very clear in an interview with BBC Radio 1. The disdain was palpable when he mentioned Lady Gaga’s Creative Director role with Polaroid, asking, “what the **** does she know about cameras?”
To West’s point, this celebrity Creative Director phenomenon can feel like a PR stunt. And it can be hard not to write it off as such. Many in the “professional” Creative Director space would say it’s absolutely a gimmick. But in a Drapers piece discussing the appearance of celebrities in these roles, influencer marketing consultant Reena Rai says consumers aren’t guaranteed to be “swayed by star factor,” and that, “whenever brands appoint influencers in high-profile roles, consumer opinion tends to be split.”
Even if the partnership is received well, what about the longevity of the brand or business? An experienced, professional Creative Director understands the company’s strategy and the direction the board is moving. Can celebrity Creative Directors, with their vision, personal brand, creativity, and most notably, their following, really bring more than just a quick uplift in traffic and sales? Equally important to note, PR stunts also come with new potential hardship.
Molly-Mae Hague, of Love Island fame, is the Creative Director for fast fashion brand PrettyLittleThing (PLT). You might, however, know her more from reminding us that we all have “the same 24 hours in the day” – a comment she made on The Diary of a CEO, a Steven Bartlett podcast. Her ‘tone deaf’ remarks made headlines, with one newspaper citing a 2,967% increase in Google searches of customers asking “how to cancel PLT orders” following Hague’s statement. Calls for her resignation as Creative Director were made. Apologies were made. In the end, Hague did not lose her job. PLT stayed committed in their decision to keep her name aligned with the brand.
Looking to the future, and knowing how hard companies are striving to engage and become more personalised and aligned with consumers, it seems probable we’ll be seeing more celebrities filling more Creative Director and C-suite roles. But we must maintain and nurture those “behind-the-scenes” leaders as well. Maybe these positions even become duos, where the professional, who’s more intrinsically linked with company strategy and understands the brand and the direction it’s moving, is working collaboratively with the celebrity or influencer, who brings in more social media presence, as well as their own creative field and beliefs.
So, should the celebrity Creative Director pull up a permanent chair in the C-suite? Gimmick or not, we haven’t seen the end of it. And maybe just the beginning.
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