Fresh off the heels of the Super Bowl, one of the most celebrated ads of the night was the team up between Michael Cera and Cerave. What made the ad such a hit with creatives, however, wasn’t the ad itself, but the lead up towards it.

In the days, following up to the Super Bowl, paparazzi like spottings of the “Barbie” star began to pop up on social media, such as popular gossip site Deuxmoi.

The success of this lead up to the big commercial comes off the heels of a rise in popularity of paparazzi culture – themed campaigns.

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I personally saw this trend arise again with Broken Planet’s spring drop in April of 2023. From the flashing lights piercing the night, to the “Skelly images” and “Skellywood cam” clever call backs, this successful campaign recaptured the glamour and excitement that was seen in the paparazzi shots of the early 2000s.

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But why paparazzi specifically? Paparazzi saw its meteoric rise in the early 2k at the peak of celebrity fascination’s mix with tabloid journalism. The public’s insatiable need for gossip and scandal led to this era’s popularity and shifted the way celebrities were portrayed in the media, with paparazzi culture unknowingly influencing trends in fashion as well.

By using these techniques to emulate the feeling and glamour of celeb culture, brands can successfully turn a brand in a celebrity in its own right.

The nostalgia of early 2k paparazzi culture still presents itself as relevant in today’s marketing world as the cyclical 20 year trend has now landed us at the beginning of its heyday. We see that materialize in campaigns such as the Poster Girl SS24 collection drop.

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Using the paparazzi’s love for capturing scandal back in the early aughts, Poster Girl successfully replicated the feeling of seeing your favorite problematic celeb being caught by TMZ in their most scandalous moment.

the psychology of paparazzi culture

If we wanna get really technical and smart about the topic, the allure that paparazzi has on the consumer is right on the nose of basic psychological and sociological principles. Looking at Goffman’s classic 1959 front and back stage theory, the concept of the “stage” — ‘all the world’s is a stage’ as Shakespeare would say — can be split into two parts.

The front stage, is where the performer, or the celebrity, acts a certain way because people are watching. And one would correctly assume that back stage is how the performer would act without the eyes of the audience (Goffman [1999] 1959) — although in some case it wouldn’t be the same as being in complete private as you are still in pseudo performance mode.

Meyrowitz expands on this theory and contextualizes it for the modern world (1985), by implying that there exists a middle or side stage that exists within the rise of digital media. Back and front stage have begun to blur together, and the new ‘middle stage’ comes into existence. Parts of the “backstage” are now available to the audience, who are shown a ‘“side-stage” view (Meyrowitz, 1985: 47).

Paparazzi can be seen as that middle stage. Picturing not quite the glammed up celebrities that you’ll see at red carpets or movie premieres or in music videos, but not how you would see a celebrity in their own home. These pictures offer the chance to see a celebrity in the normal life, completing errands or going shopping.

It’s worth it to note that paparazzi of today and what fuels our FYPs is different than that of the naughties. Originally a place for photographers to cash in on finding a celebrity at their worst, securing lucrative front-page spots by revealing the most scandalous behavior they could find.

Nowadays, most paparazzi pics showcase our faves simply walking their dog, or going on a stroll around their neighborhood. A mix of modernity and nostalgia, we’ve seen the rise of paparazzi to the point where now it can be considered a second runway.

paparazzi as a marketing tactic

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As paparazzi culture started to shift to capturing the “normalcy” of a celebrity, many fashion houses took this as an opportunity to showcase just how “ready-to-wear” their new collections could be.

One of the most viral fashion campaigns to come out of 2023 was the über successful guerrilla collaboration with Bottega Venetta and A$AP Rocky.

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For months, the rapper has seemingly been photographed “randomly” by paparazzi seemingly everywhere looking like Mr. Put it On himself the entire summer.

Only for it to be revealed that his casual wear wasn’t all that casual. Meticulously curated by creative directors behind Bottega, the newest collection showcased itself in a way that both emphasizes the exclusivity and prestige behind the brand, while also effectively showing just how ready it is to wear. By using that middle stage, it is able to get both of its points across, while also bringing publicity to the brand.

Bottega Veneta’s resort collection was already everywhere before we even realised it! pic.twitter.com/AoYvyifd2L

— Kea (@jacquemusx) November 3, 2023

so, where are you going with this?

To be honest, I actually have no idea. But having a retrospection on the rise of this marketing tactic in this past year is necessary to see how brands can transform their product into a sort of celebrity of itself — and how they can shift the tides for something even more innovative down the new year.

I also want to note that this marketing tactic is one that I believe will be here for a long while. I think the surprise factor in a paparazzi-turned-campaign reveal always generates buzz, and with a mix of nostalgia and a touch of the middle stage insight into celebrity life that the consumer loves so much, this is sure to be a tactic that will work for years to come.

Or really, until celebrity culture loses its charm, which one could argue is losing its importance at rapid speed. But that’s another topic for another day, another post.

sources:

1. Goffman E (1990 [1959]) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. London: Penguin Books.
2. Meyrowitz J (1985) No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior. New York: Oxford University Press.