Could the Kardashians be the Secret to the 2016 Election?
The Kardashians, love them or hate them, appear they are here to stay. Breaking into pop culture infamy after the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman via their parents’ connection to both the defendant and one of the victims (Kris Kardashian Jenner was one of Nicole Brown Simpson’s closest friends and Robert Kardashian was OJ Simpson’s best friend and a member of his defense “dream” team.
Kim’s star was the first to rise with the leak of her sex tape in 2007. After filing suit against the tape’s distributor, Kim eventually settled for a rumored $5 million. Over the past decade she has redefined herself as a savvy businesswoman, albeit a greatly overexposed one.
Celebrities in modern society are their own personal brands. In 2014, she was second only to actress Jennifer Lawrence as the most “Googled” celebrity. At last count, Kim had a combined following of almost 120 million people on her various social media platforms. That’s more than McDonalds, Starbucks, Wal-Mart and Coca Cola combined. The number of followers a person has is comparable to Nielsen ratings on television shows. She reportedly earns up to 6 figures to tweet her support of certain brands and up to $300,000 for appearances.
Her influence was recently felt in the pharmaceutical industry when she tweeted her support of an anti-nausea drug, Diclegis. Prior to her tweet, the company reported 3% of their posts took place on Twitter, with the remaining 97% on forums frequented by pregnant women. After, an astonishing, 21% of posts were on Twitter, and 26% on the news. This shows clearly the link between celebrity involvement and media awareness.
While Kim is undoubtedly the biggest star in the family, her sisters are also followed by millions of people. Kendall & Kylie Jenner (Kris Kardashian Jenner’s children with the former Bruce Jenner) are the latest media darlings. 18-year-old Kylie makes millions of dollars promoting products like detox tea and her own makeup line. Kendall reportedly received her lucrative Estee Lauder endorsement deal due to her 57-million instagram followers.
Bill Clinton’s election in 1992 was said to be due to his ability to speak to the younger generation. His appearances on MTV and the Arsenio Hall Show brought him to the forefront in the minds of a much-neglected age group. Is it unreasonable to think that the Kardashian influence could affect this election? Not at all. Is it likely the Kardashians will support Donald Trump and their followers will do the same? Not likely, but stranger things have happened in this family of 72-day marriages, teen supermodels, reality TV mavens, entrepreneurs and a “momager”. Is it likely that Donald Trump’s campaign has already thought of increasing the Donald’s relatively meager 1.5 million followers by linking him to this social media dynasty? Absolutely.
