One tweet and Kevin Hart has $2 million+ more in his bank account
When celebrities act, people respond. And when people respond, it certainly didn’t come for free.
I’ll start with this question, is it fair? Is it fair that doctors, engineers, designers, lawyers, and every other profession that doesn't involve highly influential celebrities put in so many hours of their day to earn however much they can by the end of the month, while celebrities are able to catch millions of dollars with just their phone and their fingers? Already celebrities like Kevin Hart earn billions of dollars for their movies, which in all fairness they work so hard for, but is tweeting a message worth another 2 million dollars on top of everything earned? There is no doubt that creators leverage social media for their own benefits, but is it necessary?
It with no shock that social media is the present and future way of marketing, and will dominate the foreseeable marketing future. It is the dominant form of grabbing attention, with minimal effort needed from both the viewer and the creator, making this form of content marketing one of the strongest out there currently. However, there are certain factors that affects the strength of of the message, and the most dominant factor playing a huge impact is certainly the celebrities. Celebrities are able to make not so important things extremely important, from their ability to have one message spread across the whole world in an instant and reach the eyes of billions of people within a second. Certainly, celebrities are becoming and have become miraculously influential people, and there is no doubt that content creators would leverage this fact and utilize their follower count to their own benefits. But where does the line draw in terms of how much it should cost?
Lets rewind to an extremely controversial story. Taking it back to 2014, there were a leak of emails showing Sony executives, one of them being Cling Culpepper calling Hart a “whore” for demanding money in exchange for his film promotion on his social media account(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2870629/). Culpepper stated “I’m not saying he’s a whore, but he’s a whore,”. This was all due to the fact that Harts team asked the executives for money if Hart was to promote the film using his 14.4 million twitter followers at the time. After the leaks came out, and people Hart fans expressed their anger towards the comments made about him, Kevin Hart took the time to respond to the leaked emails showing Sony attack Hart by posting this on instagram: https://www.thewrap.com/kevin-hart-responds-to-leaked-sony-emails-calling-him-a-whore/
“Knowing your self worth is extremely important people” he states. And so it is. Kevin Hart took it to social media to point out that he doesn’t come easy. He built his brand, and therefore he protects it. By protecting it, it is his duty to hold what he has built and not give it away from free. He’s not trying to build a castle, as he stated he’s “building this empire”, and that certainly isn’t going to come if content creators leverage his value and worth for free. Take fitness gummies for example, fitness celebrities who post about these gummies or protein shakes definitely aren't doing it for free. So why should Hart?
Therefore, coming back to the questions stated above, about whether it is fair or necessary to pay someone 2 million for a simple tweet comes down to this. Celebrities are like brands. They have built themselves to become the people that they are. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian had it easier than a celebrity like Beyonce per say, however needless to say they all started from somewhere and ended up somewhere bigger. It is very clear to note that using celebrities are safe to invest in for marketing purposes because of the values they bring to the table. Unlike billboard advertisements who go unnoticed, or noticed by those who pass it, social media posts are seen and retweeted more than you can possibly imagine. That being said, once a celebrity promotes a movie, there is no doubt they would be contributing to the relative success of what is being promoted. Celebrities have voices who are heard very loudly through social media platforms. Once they speak, people listen and once people listen, people respond. Unlike us ‘normal’ human beings who get 20 people if were lucky to view our comments and get no reaction in return, they on the other hand have a monetary value that they hold very closely to themselves and aren't going to give it away for free.
It can certainly be argued that celebrities already get paid so much money for what they do, and it could be classified as “stingy” to ask for money for simply moving fingers around to type a message, where that money could be more beneficial elsewhere solving greater problems, however once a celebrity knows their worth, its going to cost money. A lot of money..
So, back to my question. Is it fair? Not necessarily, no. It is necessary? I would argue yes. To refrain from being a hypocrite, if I was Kevin Hart, or any celebrity in fact, I would definitely ask for the money. The question is, would you?
