The current state of our social world
has led everyone with a phone to become a celebrity. Facebook started
it and it looks like now Twitter and Snapchat run it.
With this current status quo to market
brands (which celebrities indeed are, a brand) traditional
celebrities have discovered the monetisation value of technology.
However, they've also found out everyone now also has the same
accessibility and voice as the celebrities. Traditional celebrities
now realize that their fans, have the ability to make or break them
like never before. This brings me to the point of this post, the
custodians rip-off is the new practice for the social world. People
want to say and do anything they can to benefit themselves. They will
do and say anything if it earns them a dollar or two. As soon as a
message is put out, there is no getting it back. The masses now, more
than ever, can voice there dissatisfaction and criticism immediately.
And oh-man, anyone who puts their opinion out there is getting
destroyed for it. They want to protect there brand, so when damage
control kicks in, they'll appease the masses to save face and get
their money again.
The custodians rip-off is essentially
the purpose of engagement for selfish reasons. "Rather than trying to
engage and understand others, the performer who falls into this trap,
or takes this stance, is more interested in how she or he might
benefit from engaging with the other". In the beginning of the social
contact with the masses, people tend to stay with what's trendy. This
keeps most happy, at least the ones willing to invest time on the
opinion of another. But, as soon as you deviate from that trend,
backlash is almost imminent. What follows most of the time, is the
now famous indirect apology, which is typically a cut and paste
apology for what they said or did and their intention wasn't to hurt
anyone's feelings. After that the offending person typically
disappears for a bit of time (probably at the advice of their PR
manager) only to reemerge from the depths of obscurity to agree with
the new trend that's going on. Another idea from the custodians
rip-off is not doing anything and the whole of the social world
bludgeons the individual to eventually act. Joel Osteen, the famous
Houston
tel-evangelical has learned first hand
how mass criticism can effect your pocket book, and how the
custodians rip-off comes into effect to keep your self interests in
tact.
As we all know, Houston was obliterated
by hurricane Harvey recently. Thousands and thousands of people were
displaced from the devastation caused by the hurricane and really,
the whole city was trying to come together for the benefit of itself.
Good Ol' Joel Osteen is (by his own admission) a godly christian man.
The good book guides him through life and the word of god is passed
through him onto his followers to lead the best and most giving lives
they can. Joel, has a net worth of 40 million(1), not too bad for the
spokesman of god (I imagine a lot of that income comes form his
television deals and radio shows.) So, Houston has thousands of
displaced people looking for shelter as their homes have been
destroyed. His Lakewood mega-church can hold 16,000(2) people and Ol' Joel never opened the doors for these poor people. Once word got out
the flak came rolling in. It took quite a bit of time for the
Lakewood Church to open. And it was a good thing that they did open,
it was the right thing to do. Where the custodians rip-off comes in
is his eventual response to the criticism. He states that, “We were
taking in people from the beginning.” and, “We
were taking people as soon as the floodwaters receded
.”(3) I believe it was a week until he even spoke out publicly. Now
my opinion is he new that the whole of the United States, not just
Houston, was furious with him. Calls for boycott and threatening to
boycott his sponsors started to surface. Well Joel can't have his
pocket book tapped into, so his happy response was released with all
them white teeth of his. He needed to appease to the masses for his
personal gain and to maintain his current standard of life. His brand
was threatened and he needed to preserve it. So, he'd say the best
and nicest things he could to protect that income.
Celebrities will do and say anything
for self benefit. Kim Kardashian is notorious for this(3).
Now, this post may come off as cynical
or condescending. I'm merely pointing out how the custodians rip-off
is being used. You really can't knock anyone for trying it. Heck,
business is almost entirely based of this concept. Why wouldn't any
business say anything that won't benefit them? Celebrities are a
brand and that brand is their business. This post is to show that
saving face is the custodians rip-off in it's purest form. People
have to protect their brand from the masses that disapprove of them
and engaging with those masses to continue to benefit them selves is
what the custodians rip-off defines.
Sources
1. http://heavy.com/entertainment/2017/08/joel-osteen-net-worth-salary-books-church-books-how-much-money/
4. http://people.com/tv/kim-kardashian-west-nsfw-photo-after-sharon-osbourne-slams-nude-selfies/
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