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The Brief, Bumbling Tech Careers of Lady Gaga, Alicia Keys, and Will.i.am (backchannel.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the poker-faces dept.

"Four years ago this week, Blackberry named Alicia Keys its global creative officer... Keys was really going to work for Blackberry -- to participate in weekly calls addressing product development; develop ideas and content for the Keep Moving Projects, which targeted artists and athletes; and of course, promote the brand during her upcoming tour... It didn't work." Slashdot reader mirandakatz writes: For a minute in history, it was oh-so-cool for legacy tech companies to hire pop stars... In 2005, HP brought Gwen Stefani on as a creative director. In 2010, Lady Gaga landed the job of creative director at Polaroid. In 2011, Will.i.am was the director of creative innovation at Intel. In 2012, Microsoft brought on Jessica Alba as creative director to promote its Windows Phone 8.

These roles were all touted as far more involved than the mere celebrity pitchman: The artists promised, to varying degrees, to dive into the business. But in all of these cases, the strategy failed. At Backchannel, Jessi Hempel dives into why that is, and how big names in entertainment are now finding other ways to harness the momentum of tech.
Lady Gaga left Polaroid in less than a year after "collaborating" on video camera sunglasses that offered playback through LCD lenses. While they weren't popular, this article argues most of these tech companies "faced structural business issues too significant to be addressed through celebrity branding and artistic energy." One digital ad agency even tells the site that "It's always been a flawed strategy," and calls the hiring of a celebrity "a press cycle hack."

5 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Only the most gullible think... by Viol8 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... that these slebs are directing or creating anything. They're there to add some glitz and glamour to a fading or jaded brand, nothing more. They turn up to pre arranged photo opportunities, mouth off some vacuous rubbish pre-prepared by the marketing dept then head off back to their lives with a fat cheque in their back pockets. Its all very very cynical.

    1. Re:Only the most gullible think... by lobiusmoop · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of how awesome my 'Beats by Dre' headphones are.

      --
      "I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
    2. Re:Only the most gullible think... by Viol8 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, and I'm sure Dr Dre was deeply involved in the electronic and acoustic design of them!

      Oh more likely:

      "Yo, I like red init! Dem is a cool colour blood!"

      "Ok, Mr Dre, we'll make some red ones too. Now just sign your name here for our design guys .. yes, heres a crayon, no, you hold it this way around... well done."

    3. Re:Only the most gullible think... by interkin3tic · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Funny you mention IQ. Lady Gaga was in the same program at johns hopkins that the founder of google and facebook were, the one that took the top 1% smartest kids. I mean I'm sure YOU have an IQ that is even higher than that, and you have an online test that proves it. Alternatively, I'm sure that since posting that you've had the sudden insight that IQ doesn't measure anything real anyway.

      Name a guy or woman you think is smart from the tech sector. Make them talk about entertainment or something they don't have a background in. "Man, (insert name here) is an idiot with an IQ of a half a box of doorknobs!"

      Stupid is as stupid does, and all these celebrities you're saying are dumb are without question successful at what they've attempted to do, IQ number aside. None appear to have been the product of dumb luck or mommy and daddy money from what I can tell.

      Seriously slashdot, the basement dwelling anonymous trolls are getting to be too much of a distraction, as are the morons with mod points who thought "They're dumb!" is insightful.

  2. Actually hiring people ifrom showbiz could work. by ctrl-alt-canc · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just imagine Clint Eastwood as system manager.