This article initiated quite the debate in my head...when you become famous, and companies support your products because of your celebrity status, do you have an obligation to keep your personal life stable and private?
Unless you've been living under a rock for the past two or three weeks, I'm sure you have heard of Britney's recent breakdown and head-shaving incident. If you haven't, these images should pretty much sum it up for you:
From our point of view as unbiased people who have no connection to Britney, it is obvious that this is a troubled girl, who needs some serious help from those closest to her.
However, from those who endorse and produce Britney's products, like the people at Elizabeth Arden, the success of their company lies in the behavioral choices she makes. Britney receiving this much negative publicity turn fans off...not only from Britney, but also from her products.
Usually, when celebrities' personal lives go downhill, they are dropped from their endorsements and sponsors. Take Kate Moss for example: When video surfaced of Kate snorting Cocaine at a British night club, Rimmel, one of her biggest endorsements, immediately dropped her.
This is why I was so pleasantly surprised by this article. I believe that the personal lives of celebrities should have nothing to do with their professional careers. No wonder this girl is having a nervous breakdown, she has been in the public eye, scrutinized her entire life. The last thing she needs right now is another negative aspect to her life. This is why I admire Elizabeth Arden for sticking by the side of, and continuing to support a teen icon, who has helped them make quite a bit of money, in her time of need.
What she needs right now is empathy and compassion. Not judgement and scrutiny.
1 comment:
I think it depends on the circumstances. Kate Moss doing lines of coke is different than Brit's clear emotional breakdown. Brit still has some public sympathy. If she were doing lines of coke, Arden would've dropped her, too -- a single mom of two doing coke wouldn't fit the image... a troubled young woman with the emotional baggage that being young and famous brings. That's different.
I think E. Arden is being smart standing behind Brit (from a PR perspective). The company comes across as sympathetic and compassionate.
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