Friday, May 11, 2012

O'Reilly vs. Kardashian - For the DEFENSE!





























Say the name Kim Kardashian and, depending upon the company you're in, the response may be either positive or negative. Love her or hate her, the one thing that's certain, we all know who she is. But it's WHY we all know who she is that's the REAL story here. She's famous, yes. But WHY is she famous? Unlike other celebrities, she has NO discernible talent that I am aware of. If she can sing, play an instrument, or act it's news to me. But she IS famous, mostly for being INFAMOUS and that is her BRAND which she has carefully and assiduously nourished over the years. Kim Kardashian has done what was before only a fiction in the advertising industry, branded and marketed a NON existent product. That was the premise of an old Doris Day movie about the advertising business in which a New York advertising executive created a marketing campaign around a fictitious product known only as “Vip”. When brought before the ad council on ethics charges he finally presented a hastily concocted product,  a candy that was made with REAL alcohol and was capable of inducing intoxication upon consumption.

Kim Kardashian is like “Vip” and LIKE the fictitious product "Vip", she too is capable of inducing intoxication, but merely upon exposure. How ELSE can one explain the legions of fans of all ages and genders who make it their “mission” in life to “keep up” with the Kardashians, particularly Kim Kardashian, herself.   In a self started and driven publicity campaign that would make even the biggest names in Madison Avenue advertisers blush with PRIDE, she's waged a one woman marketing campaign that, judging by its results, is worthy of a Clio award at the very least. She has demonstrated the skills of a publicist, a marketer, promoter, and adult film star in her rise to fame and success. And she has parlayed that fame (or infamy) into an enterprise that not only produces television shows, but an impressive array of other merchandise as well.

Kim Kardashian is an entrepreneurial success story in the FINEST American tradition. So, imagine my surprise when last week I hear none other than Bill O'Reilly remark that Kim Kardashian is an example of what's WRONG with America today. Is free market entrepreneurial capitalism what's WRONG? That sounds more like the mantra of the Occupy Wall Street flotsam, most of whom probably FOLLOW Kim Kardashian on Twitter or Facebook and leer at photos of her in various states of undress while sponging off their parents, squatting on public property and screaming “down with capitalism.”

So, shame on you, Bill O'Reilly. Kim Kardashian is not what's WRONG with America, but rather what's RIGHT with it. She took what could have just as easily been her “fifteen minutes” of ancillary fame when the cameras were following her FATHER, Attorney Robert Kardashian, during the O.J. Simpson homicide trial. We all remember Robert Kardashian, the swarthy and stylish gentleman with the leonine head of salt and pepper hair and stylish and well tailored suits sitting right next to O.J. Simpson at the Defense table day after day. The paparazzi and media couldn't get ENOUGH of the “dream team” and so it pursued them into their private lives. When they discovered that Robert Kardashian had a trio of exotically attractive daughters, they suddenly began the process that would later become known as “keeping up with the Kardashians.”

When the trial ended the media spotlight could easily have faded away had Kim Kardashian not taken it upon herself to keep that light pointed and focused in HER direction, and to achieve this she gave us quite a show. It was that show that she parlayed into a media career first in modeling, then reality television, and later into a merchandising enterprise. There's NOTHING wrong with that. Sure, she had a privileged upbringing and she got her initial opportunity by happenstance, but she CHOSE to make the MOST of it and took ACTION to make it happen.  As a result of choices she made and actions she took, she has succeeded and on her OWN terms. That USED to be a GOOD thing, Mr. O'Reilly. Personally I think it STILL is.

In my opinion,  the people that Bill O'Reilly and other commentators and pundits are REALLY referring to as the problem in America are the legions of "lemmings" who care more about keeping up with a Kardashian than they do about what's happening in the REAL world, such as the war in Afghanistan, or the upcoming Presidential election. But there's an old saying about which is the bigger fool, the fool or the fool who FOLLOWS her? Kim Kardashian is not the problem here. It's the people that are obsessed with keeping up with her for all the wrong REASONS that are the REAL problem. 

These days it seems ANYONE can become a “celebrity” if they're willing to show enough skin, or make a fool of themselves on YouTube. Gone are the days when you had to find Lana Turner working the soda fountain in a Hollywood drug store, or the next big musical act playing to the dinner crowd in a spaghetti restaurant in Eerie, Pennsylvania. Celebrities are now more often than not plucked from obscurity on either a reality based contest show, or just by the sheer number of views their videos get on YouTube. If they get enough views it's called “going VIRAL", and it's the video equivalent of self publishing.

It is much easier to self promote these days than it was back in the nineties when Kim Kardashian first started grabbing for the spotlight, but she made the effort and that effort has paid off in a HUGE way. There's even rumors she's planning to back and star in her own SCRIPTED sitcom on a major television network in addition to her other reality shows on the cable entertainment channel. Some may say she doesn't “deserve” that as there are many more qualified “real” actresses out there, but if she's backing the show with her own cash, why NOT let her do it. We KNOW she brings EYES which translates to RATINGS which means MONEY for the network, and if she can DO it, more power to her. If she can't, she'll FAIL and that's all right, too. It happens to the best of us sometimes. Just ask Oprah Winfrey whose OWN cable network enterprise is struggling, But don't hate her for doing what she does. She earns major BANK for doing it, pays her TAXES, and in the process creates more JOBS than any Washington politician can honestly claim to have done.

There are only two possible “reasons” to “hate” Kim Kardashian, and they go to the old “sour grapes” psychological term rationalization; or, as Aesop put it in his "Fox and Grapes" fable - "It's EASY to DESPISE what you CANNOT get."  If you're a woman hating on her, it's because you can't BE her and have her LIFE;  or, your MAN is fantasizing about being with HER instead of with YOU. If you're a MAN hating on her, it's because you can't be WITH her. But these are superficial reasons at best that reflect human nature at its WORST. 


 In the case of Bill O'Reilly, I believe his scorn is misdirected. Or maybe it's that he's “just not that into her.” I suspect the feeling's MUTUAL on her part, too. But even if it's not, and Kim Kardashian is a regular “Factor” viewer, she's also a successful entrepreneur and media mogul deserving of our respect, if not our admiration. And thank God for the internet, as I'm sure there's a copy of her sex tape floating out there somewhere. If you're a MAN, you gotta love that. And, if you're a woman still hating on her, you can find her video and compare how she looked THEN to how she looks NOW. Maybe you'll find some minor flaw or sign of aging you can point to and feel all superior, if only for a moment. God BLESS America, land of opportunity. And to borrow a line from a James Bond theme, when it comes to being “famous”, “nobody does it better” than Kim Kardashian.