Borkowski Media Trends: Beyoncé's new whiskey, Harris IS brat, & more
Lemonade is swapped for something stronger, Harris gets the nomination & Sabrina Carpenter gives us a twisted tale
Beyoncé ditches Lemonade for something stronger
Beyoncé has become the next in a long line of A-list stars to launch their own alcohol brand after collaborating with Moet Hennessy, a subsidiary of LVMH, to create SirDavis. Beyoncé follows in the footsteps of other celebrities including Sir Rod Steward who recently launched Wolfie’s blended Scotch, and Ryan Reynolds who co-owns gin brand Aviation and newly released 6 specialty bottles ahead of the Deadpool and Wolverine film premier.
Lending her star power to the whisky brand, it is Beyoncé’s authentic enthusiasm for whisky that has allowed it to shine, generating excited anticipation despite the wallet squeezing price tag. Far from a celebrity gimmick, slapping a big name on a brand to draw in customers, SirDavis x Beyoncé actually makes sense. Beyoncé has long professed a love for whisky, singing about ‘Yamazaki straight from Tokyo’ all the way back in 2016, and when she set about developing her own spirit, she chose to work with industry expert Dr Bill Lumsden to create the product. Quality of product and passion for whisky aside, Beyoncé is also intrinsically associated with the whisky’s production as it is finished, blended, and bottled in her home state of Texas. SirDavis is also due to be headquartered in Houston.
The effort to ensure the integrity of the product alongside its genuine connection to the star has imbued this product launch with the spirit of authenticity often lost in celebrity partnerships. Due to be released in September we’ll see if it makes as much of a splash as her Lemonade.
Harris IS brat
The Democratic National Convention has come to its conclusion and with it, Kamala Harris has officially won the support of the Democratic party. As she lines up to take on Trump in a bid for the US Presidency, it is clear that this year’s race for the White House will be unlike any we’ve seen before. Featuring Trump’s use of AI generated fake news *cough Swifties for Trump* and the use of memes, the digital campaign is set to be spicy.
Harris’s efforts to win young voters have largely involved seeing them through green tinted lenses following a recent tweet by Charlie XCX written after Harris announced her bid for president reading ‘kamala IS brat’. The Harris campaign HQ were quick to leap on this endorsement, changing the colours of their campaign HQ social media to the iconic green featured in Charlie XCX’s brat summer. Politicians have often tried to use celebrities to court the youth vote, with Hillary Clinton’s ‘Pokemon go to the polls’ line in 2016 eliciting embarrassment. Harris seems to have been more successful with little to know backlash beyond minor confusion from the over 35s who seem unsure what Brat means.
The difference between Harris and Clinton is that Harris did not seek out the youth in a deliberate (and often interpreted as cringy) way. Rather she was invited into the fold by Charlie XCX and she graciously accepted. Clinton’s efforts to muscle her way into the cool crowd were simply her trying too hard to be liked. Charlie gave Harris her moment and Harris’s team did well to seize it.
A tasty success for Sabrina
Once again, Sabrina Carpenter is trending on Twitter. The celebrity who went viral almost overnight for her hit song Espresso has dropped the video for her single ‘Taste’ which features on her just-released sixth album ‘Short n’ Sweet’. A stark contrast to the sepia toned sugary aesthetics of her previous viral hit, Taste opens with a ‘graphic violence’ warning before launching into a series of violent escapades. Featuring Carpenter and Jenna Ortega, the video shows them brutally destroying each other as they fight over a boyfriend. From being thrown out a window and shot to being electrocuted and set on fire, Carpenter is thoroughly mauled by Ortega, who then gets given it all back. This reads more like a Tarantino film than an upbeat pop song.
And yet, despite the violence the video is clearly hilarious. From the accidental murder of the boyfriend known only ever as ‘the boyfriend’ to the two women’s abilities to survive being impaled on fences, sawed apart and seemingly regrow limbs, the video is more like a cartoon than anything serious. This may be the source of its charm, shunning the need to be serious and embracing playful if a little macabre drama, the video is an invitation to the viewer not to take things too seriously. In stark contrast to Katie Perry’s flop with Woman’s World where some of the satire was buried in the overly sexual delivery and criticism was levelled at her for trying too hard to be feminist, Carpenter has managed to poke fun at revenge comedies without going in too deep. Keeping the scenes deliberately unrealistic (see Carpenter sitting up in a bed with a hole through her middle) has enabled the video to laugh at itself.
The final scene with Ortega and Carpenter walking away together from the boyfriend’s funeral commending each other on having put up with him is a subtle nod to the power of female friendship and a refusal to let men get in the way. Not all messaging needs to be delivered bluntly and sharply.
