Borkowski Weekly Media Trends 25-11-22
Savoy Influencer Scandal | Michele’s Gucci Arrivederci | Pawn-aldo & Chess-i | Germany World Cup protest | Depp's Rep
Influencer’s Savoy Ploy Annoys Hoi Polloi
Fashion and lifestyle influencer Lydia Millen ended up on the wrong side of Tik Tok this week with this video where she declared that her heating was broken so she was off to the Savoy in London. This tone deaf intro preceded a Get Ready With Me” which featured Millen putting on a pair of Louboutin boots and accessorising with a Hermès handbag. With stories of families and elderly people struggling to afford the cost of heating their homes this winter, it’s perhaps not surprising that this video (not atypical content for Millen or her peers) attracted ire in the comments section and across other social media platforms.
It’s hardly a new phenomenon for an influencer to get dragged for flaunting their wealth and privilege, and it’s difficult not to sympathise with people who will feel anger at the unfairness of it all as they shiver at home under multiple jumpers while an apparently talentless woman with flawless hair swans off to one of London’s most luxurious hotels to escape her freezing cold mansion. But Millen, and many others, have being built whole careers and massive audiences by posting just this kind of content for years. And lest we forget, those years have encompassed a global pandemic, history’s worst ever refugee crisis, and increasingly horrific natural disasters caused by the climate crisis.
Amongst it all, influencers continue to influence. So it does seem a tad unfair that it’s this singular comment that has resulted in Millen garnering headlines like, Influencers are the worst people on earth – the Savoy woman proves it from The Independent’s Harriet Williamson and Instagram comments like “Some people shouldn’t be allowed phones…” from Girls Aloud’s Nadine Coyle (who interestingly only has 460k followers to @lydiamillen ‘s 1.2million). After all, it is big brands who really benefit from all this conspicuous consumption (Millen’s now infamous Savoy trip was in fact #gifted), reaching huge audiences via these human advertising machines, many of whom are self-made success stories. It’s doubtful that any of the top bods at Louboutin are sat in freezing cold bedsits trying to decide between eating and heating. Unfortunately for Millen (who’s greatest sin in this whole situation is tactlessness at best and wilful ignorance at worst) she presents the perfectly contoured face of the horrific levels of inequality across British society today.
Michele’s Gucci Arrivederci: Long Knives or just Changing of the Guard?
The Telegraph might have reported that Alessandro Michele is a not known outside the cognoscenti, but the fact remains that almost every major publication in this country has reported on the designer’s departure from Gucci. Perhaps not as firmly rooted in the general consciousness as Donatella Versace or Tom Ford, Michele has acquired the status of the fashion industry’s darling in his seven years at the Kering-owned house. His brave new vision for Gucci was theatrical and very millennial: seventies-inspired, opulent, kitsch, and gender-bending, in line with the zeitgeist of the mid-2010s.
Theories have emerged about Michele’s sudden departure, suggesting a Machiavellian ousting, for instance, but what seems the most likely is that Michele’s style has just grown old. The designer was dubbed the ‘saviour of Gucci’ when his new vision delivered colossal quarterly growth in his first years at the house, a trend which has by now completely reversed. It makes sense for Gucci to turn the page and hire a new designer who will ponder to an increasingly Gen-Z, 2000s-influlenced audience.
Earlier this week we have seen what happens when a brand clings to its aesthetic a little too hard for a little too long. Balenciaga’s recent big faux pas involved a campaign with toddlers holding plushies in branded BDSM gear, accompanied by legal papers pertaining to child abuse. The images and the brand’s response sparked outrage for obvious reasons, but the core of Balenciaga’s issue is the refusal to switch things up from their increasingly misplaced edgy, stunt-based branding after we have seen the best of it already. The brand’s resulting image is one of a rebel, but one that is somewhat lost, teenage, and in an identity crisis at that.
Fashion industry is peculiar in how companies tend to completely overhaul their branding with each head designer, while trying to retain continuity in core values. To keep their audiences hooked, they need to be swift at making changes when the direction gets a little murky.
Pawn-aldo & Chess-i: Leibovitz image is a potential classic
There’s a fascinating discussion around Annie Liebovitz’s photo of Ronaldo and Messi for Louis Vuitton.
The symbolism of the image is brilliant; a chess match between football’s two grand masters atop a trophy case containing the world cup.
Ronaldo, the personification of self-assured, single-minded purpose; Messi, studious and analytical, weighing up all the options. The chess board shows an iconic knife-edge draw between Magnus Carlsen and American fellow grand master Hikaru Nakamura: every detail is at least satisfying, always stylish, and often brilliant.
But there’s more than meets the eye.
Firstly, the timing: the World Cup is usually an easy bandwagon for brands, but to suggest that this edition lacks the magic and aura of its predecessors is an understatement: Qatar has been contagiously toxic to the reputation of anyone seen to be endorsing it.
Secondly, these are two stars on the wane – at least in footballing terms. At any point in the last fifteen years this photo would have depicted the two greatest players in the sport at the peak of their powers, but this week it depicts a player whose team has just suffered the most humiliating defeat in its history, and another who has just been sacked by the club that helped make him, in a cacophony of tabloid petulance. To sum up: Messi and Ronaldo aren’t quite the automatic brand win they once were.
Finally, there are suggestions in some corners of the internet that the photo set up is not authentic and in fact a composite of two individual images; a seemingly superficial but reputationally important accusation in an age where authenticity is a dying art.
Overall, however there’s no arguing with its success. Between Ronaldo and Messi’s near 900M Instagram followers the image is already one of the most-liked in the platform’s history. That alone is arguably job done for Louis Vuitton. For Leibovitz it’s another era-defining image in the bag. And as the two footballing titans reach the twilight of their athletic careers, being the subjects of an infamous Leibovitz is a way to further cement their status as cultural icons who transcend football.
German World Cup Protest: Heroic or a Half Measure?
The World Cup is an inevitable talking point due to the abundance of controversy, and drama. We've previously discussed the competition's reputation problem, which is putting complicit brands at risk; now gesture politics has crept onto the field, making these conversations hard to ignore.
The controversy centres around the "OneLove" armband and whether some team captains would don the symbol - widely deemed to be a nod to human rights and LGBT inclusion in particular- on their armbands.
Initially championed by the Dutch FA as part of an inclusiveness campaign in 2020, the band took on new symbolism as a protest against Qatar’s backwards Human Rights record and LGBT laws. Football’s venal, craven governing body FIFA, having failed to respond to requests for several countries’ captains to wear the band, outlawed it claiming it was a political symbol on the eve of the first games. The teams unanimously capitulated, unwilling to risk footballing sanctions.
It was against this backdrop that the German national team covered their mouths in a pre-match team photo as a sign they were being silenced by FIFA. However, the symbolism fell flat on its face: Firstly, Germany lost to underdogs Japan, leading many (famously polite) Japanese fans to mock the gesture. This was a fillip for those in FIFA and the Qatar government claiming that players should prioritise their duties before making political statements.
Then there were unfavourable comparisons to the Iran men’s national team. Whose decision not to sing their national anthem in solidarity with ongoing women’s rights protests and opposition to the brutal fashion in which their government has suppressed them, was widely seen as a brave and powerful gesture at great personal risk of recriminations by a brutal regime. To many the German protest looked petty in comparison, and the original decision not to wear the armbands outright cowardly.
However, seven countries that FIFA prevented from wearing the bands are considering legal action over the dispute. We can call out the competition's giants getting things wrong, but the one thing the protest achieved was adding to the sentiment that a storm is coming for FIFA when this tournament ends.
Captain Jack’s NOT back; but is Depp’s rep’?
After the TikTok trial of the year and Jonny Depp's victory -albeit one that cost his reputation dearly- his return to the big screen would have been sensational in any form, but his reprisal of the role of Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean was as blockbuster as it gets.
However, no sooner was the news announced than the Daily Mail confirmed the story was false. Fans were heartbroken and not sure who to believe.
But the initial reaction was further demonstration that Jonny Depp does appear to be rebuilding his brand and image. He has survived years of accusations, lawsuits, setbacks, doubling down rather ungraciously in his occasional public appearances. And despite all this, he seems almost as popular as ever, an image buttressed by his cult social media following, and one which means that, when he does plan his big screen comeback, he will not be short of offers.
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