The perfect billboard, celebrities

        The ultimate form of advertising is possibly where we would least expect it, the red carpet. At events attended by Hollywood elite no one would expect what really goes on behind the scenes is not all glamorous, but mostly strategic. Celebrities are essentially the perfect walking billboards, because every time they are asked, "who are you wearing?" the whole world waits with baited breath to know. And once that answer has been given everyone tuning in to the Grammy's, Tony's, or Golden Globes, will hear the brand that their favorite celebrity has supposedly chosen.
       The reason this kind of advertising is so successful is because almost every average person strives to be extraordinary like some celebrity icon that everyone has. Therefore, when we find out what kind of clothes or brand our idol has chosen we naturally project our love for the individual onto the brand itself. What this results in is us as consumers deciding we need a certain brand just because our favorite celebrity wore it at the most recent star studded event. However, this is all a well thought out lie. Not one of the actors or models walking down the red carpet actually chose their own outfit. It was a mixture of their agents, stylists, and the brands themselves working together to decide what the best image for that celebrity is. In fact, clothing brands can and will refuse certain celebrities to loan them their clothing because they do not have the right body type or do not send the message the brand would like to convey. Therefore when you associate a certain brand with the kind of person your favorite celebrity is you are buying into an incredibly meticulous advertising campaign.
       Although slightly misleading, what could really be the long term impact of brands picking their celebrities rather than the other way around? Well it is fairly easy to see through every platform of media that serious discrimination comes into play when referring to body type. The majority of the celebrities seen on the red carpet dressed in beautiful ballgowns seem to be unrealistically thin, and that is the message that is conveyed to the public. That to be on the red carpet you have to fit this frankly unobtainable standard of beauty. And this is perpetuated by clothing brands. Because the brands pick who they want to wear their clothes they can pick an individual purely based on their looks and body type. What this has resulted in is an even more concentrated version of what a celebrity looks like. There are beginning to be more and more exceptions, however overall this unrealistically thin standard of beauty has stayed the same for decades, and will take decades more to change.
        The walking billboards that are our favorite celebrities, and the masterminds behind them, have continued a vicious cycle of unrealistic beauty standards and perpetuating consumerism.