Sahana Narayan: Week 11 - The PR Game
Sahana Narayan - Week 11: The PR Game – 2/16 [6:55 PM]
Unless you’ve been living under a rock recently, you’ve probably heard of Kanye West’s recent instagram war against Pete Davidson, who is allegedly dating his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian. In the midst of this war, Kanye has cut off some of his closest friends, has gone out with a Kim Kardashian lookalike, and has dragged in innocent celebrities like Billie Eilish and the late Mac Miller into his own divorce drama.
All across Tiktok, Twitter, and gossip outlets, people are declaring that Kanye West has officially gone crazy once again. But for a minute here, I’d like to change the headlines a little bit. Instead of approaching it as him going crazy again, let’s think about how the public has fallen for it once again.
With the stunts Kanye has been pulling right now, he has gained millions of followers just in the last week, meaning more attention to his projects like Donda 2, his next album, which is literally dropping next week, along with a new documentary about him that came out yesterday. He has successfully managed to bring in A-list celebrities and bring in a wider audience(like myself for example) who wouldn’t have given a second thought otherwise to his music or other projects.
I want to emphasize that calling it a PR stunt isn’t excusing his abusive and narcissistic behavior towards Kim Kardashian, Pete Davidson, or his kids. Rather, acknowledging it further proves that these stunts he’s pulling fall under the classifications of narcissism and manipulative behavior.
I think these series of events have really shown the sheer amount of power one can hold when using media as a tool. Media can be so powerful that something like Kanye West waging a war on Pete Davidson can somehow be bigger news than Russia potentially waging an actual war with the US. But it goes to show that Kanye has somehow beaten the Kardashians at playing the PR game because with the combination of his incredible smarts along with his cunning manipulation, the media is currently the biggest weapon he’s wielding.
All this to say, it serves as a lesson for us to think more critically about media and celebrity culture. We shouldn't blindly follow gossip or buy into celebrity drama because it often is there to serve a purpose for the celebrities themselves. There are always different factors at play, and once we start recognizing those factors, we become better at thinking for ourselves and figuring out the truth.
Hi Sahana! I really have been living under a rock and I had no idea this drama was happening online. I have no clue who Pete Davidson is, but the edited movie poster is quite funny. I also did not know what a PR stunt was until your post motivated me to search it up. However, I agree that it is quite interesting to think about how relationship drama with stars is "as important" as another major war and it further proves that our society is deteriorating as I believe it is. It is also cool how you made the distinction between this drama purely being a petty feud between two celebrities and how one of them is actually using it for their own monetary and popularity gain.
ReplyDeleteHi Sahana! Your blog has beautifully shed light on the immense amount of power media is holding among individuals in society. We, as citizens, should definitely be more critical of our surroundings and the celebrity culture we are being exposed to. I do agree that if we are to deeply interrogate and discover the factors that are the main causation for this issue at hand, we will be able to solve these problems at the root without needing to care about figuring out the truth too much. Finding the true meaning of the messages is integral to differentiating between a celebrity drama sequence versus something that takes a more realistic take on society. Since celebrities and other commercial companies have their own purpose for publicizing and gaining attention for, it is essential to point out that being able to tell the difference between pure intentions towards wanting to help the public or using it to their advantage so that no one gets scammed internally for anyone’s actions. Thank you so much for your blog and I hope to read more about these unseen manipulations so we are better aware of them.
ReplyDeleteHi Sahana, your blog post reminds me of something that I wrote in my last blog post about the difference between good branding and a good product. People manage to garner attention to their works through the use of entertainment. Kanye's drama with the Kardashians is obviously staged, especially with the randomness of it. However, the most disturbing part of it isn't the fact that Kanye is promoting his album. The disturbing part is that this is getting more attention than news that actually matters. It would be expected that social media would make it easier for people to keep up to date with the world, but it is actually quite the opposite because social media simply garners to what the user finds interesting. And what the user finds interesting most of the time is not going to be the news, so they do not receive it on their feed.
ReplyDeleteHi Sahana! I typically don't pay much attention or thought to the news, but it does seem ridiculous that some celebrity news is talked about more than an actual potential international war. Perhaps it is simply because of how long Kanye has seemingly been in the attention of the media, but even then celebrity culture should not have this much influence. I agree that we should be more critical of the media surrounding celebrities. Even then, I wonder if there will ever be a time in the future where celebrity gossip is something that's rarely discussed. Although, the exciting nature of discussing drama combined with how much social media has connected us makes that seem like an unlikely possibility.
ReplyDeleteHi Sahana, I definitely agree with you. News about Kanye West and his newest insane actions have been popping up all over my feed on basically all platforms, even though I do not follow the Kardashians, or Kanye West. This “drama” has definitely gained the attention of many people, and it has helped Kanye further his popularity. This will certainly help his album and documentary gain more traction. I think there is a very strong argument that Kanye’s tweets and actions are all a PR stunt. I also like the fact that you brought up how celebrity drama receives more attention in the news than actually impactful stories, and I think that we, as the audience, are to blame. We fall into these traps and read these stories and give them attention. This pushes media companies to cover such meaningless gossip and it encourages celebrities to engage in drama for fame. I definitely agree with you that we should stop believing celebrity drama mindlessly, and we should actually think critically about what we give attention to.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest news countries and media companies are for-profit. Whatever news sells, whatever news makes the largest impacts, whatever news makes gets the most views, is what matters to these companies. This is why Pete Davidson and Kanye West, no matter who is actually correct or who is in the wrong, get so much screen time. Kim Kardashian was part of a massive TV show for years upon years with new seasons being released constantly: her name is free publicity, and to have one of the rap world's largest names in Kanye West and a massively popular entertainer and celebrity in Pete Davidson feud against each other so publicly and explosively is some of the best and greatest content someone can get. There is a reason for all this screen time: money.
ReplyDeleteHey Sahana, this conflict between Kanye and Pete Davidson over Kim has been so amusing to me as it unfolds in such a public manner. Kanye's actions have been so erratic and drastic, but are still backed by so many people, whether it be celebrities of his caliber or simply people following the drama. This scene of his eccentric nature has evoked such a response from people that it's brought him so much increased popularity and influence. With the drop of his new album and three-part Netflix series, you can truly see the meaning behind "All publicity is good publicity". Despite all that, I still follow this drama haphazardly, as it has been very funny to watch unfold, as well as with the comments and reactions of others watching this conflict progress.
ReplyDelete