Lady Gaga is named creative director for Polaroid. William is named director of creative innovation for Intel. Then this hilarious speech with, what sounds like, applause overdubbed.
I gotta ask…how do we feel about this?
Personally, I have never been more insulted in my professional life than seeing these two bozos. I don’t care if it is just for publicity, I feel like I need to boycott these companies now.
It is the same as Coleman Hiring Paul Jr Design from OCC to design their bar-b-q(which is a topic in-itself). It is all marketing in order to reach a certain “group” or to show, hey we know whats cool. Believing that their consumers are not the most intelligent and will you something purely because of the face person. It the same as a university giving an actor a honorary PHD… Now it’s not to say that these two people are not creative and could bring some different ways of thinking and viewing problems to the table but I somewhat doubt it.
While neither has any professional training in “design” they both have learned a lot about branding and selling image. I can’t say if that experience will relay into the design world. It certianly would suck if they are the “say” on a final design that you know stinks, cause if it tanks it’s your skin. But then again look at all the Michael Jordan shoes that he would never wear, people throw money at them, but he is not actually trying to design the shoes. (although I bet it will happen soon) (just an example, not poking at anyone here)
I actually feel it is a marketing move, bringing attention to the product, get a bit of flash, play it out and move on to the next one. I think the problem will be if the “Celeb” get a big(ger) head.
Good luck boycotting intel.
I wonder if there is one single thing Will.i.am could contribute. I say that mostly because intel does not make consumer products. They make super complicated micro processors. Are people actually going to buy a product with an intel chip inside because they know will.i.am is the “director of creative innovation.”
Personally I would rather hear them announce “We just hired the smartest person we could find.”
This does not bother me as a designer, it does bother me as a consumer.
Also how awkward is will.i.am in the video?
“Remember shoe maker the car driver?”
Celebrity endorsements have been used since Grogg the Elder favored using a spruce club for hunting instead of oak.
It didn’t matter to me then, and it still doesn’t now.
Well, if he doesn’t even know what to say, why should I bother?
*
You might not know the word “rohrkrepierer” but I know one when I see one.
mo-i
More to say later. Just quick though.
That speech was indeed terrible. I don’t think he even knew why he was there!
R
Celebrity endorsement is clearly nothing new, but I see this is as marketers evolving the a tactic. In the last 10 years consumers have become wiser about what they buy into, largely because there is so much more information available to them to help them make decisions. Maybe what marketers are seeing is that it doesn’t matter if Tiger Woods says Gatorade is good for you or that Michael’s silhouette is on a pair of shoes, everyone knows it’s a paid endorsement and the celebrity has little, if anything, to do with the actual product, so that technique is based on the stand alone credibility of the endorser.
I see all of this as an example of including star power from the beginning, not as an afterthought, so that consumers are made to feel they are connecting with that celebrity’s influence on a deeper level.
Not sure about William’s personal involvement with design, but Lady Gaga and her creative team Haus of Gaga have had involvement in the development of some of Polaroid’s new products.
I would not discount a pop star’s ability to build a brand or a following, or to interject that talent into design.
He might be good, another perspective and so on. Can anyone remember past ‘celebrities’ or pop-stars who have been in similar roles? i.e. that Windows 95 video using the cast of “Friends”?
Could they crowbar anymore windows references into that ‘cyber sitcom’?
I just watched Exit Through the Gift Shop last night, so maybe that’s influencing me. But this kind of thing really seems like another piece of this whole bullshit self-referential, narcissistic, empty culture we’ve built. It’s just a swirling mass of celebrity and mindless crap. We create people whose job is to be famous, and then those people claim the work of others as their own, and that makes them more famous.
This isn’t celebrity endorsement. This is Intel, a huge engineering-driven company that makes staggeringly complex computer processors, pretending that a musician is running the show.
I just can’t decide if this makes me want to pack it all in, or get on board the train.
+1 (minus the part about watching “Exit Through the Gift Shop” last night)
Nice thought.
But I still don’t know why consumers haven’t figured out marketing = liquor + guessing
Man did I miss my calling…
Speaking of marketing I just wanted to throw this in the ring of celebrity ridiculousness.
http://tv.gawker.com/5745477/the-kardashian-sisters-explain-their-talents-to-piers-morgan
“sometimes I write fashion designer”
On my first day of design class, the then head of the ID department at RISD, Bob O’Neil, addressed the the sophomore class of about 60 of us. What he said seared in my mind because I thought it was awesome: to paraphrase “There is a difference between being a designer, and being a connoisseur of design. For those of you in the first group, welcome, for those of you in the second, the door is behind you” … the overuse of professional terminology is truly killing me. Just because you are marketed, does not mean you are a marketeer, and because your family owned a store, does mean you are in fashion. Don’t get it twisted.
OT Rant on: in my view, the over use of the term designer is watering down the definition. Fancy yourself a governmental systems designer? No, you are a Washington Policy Wonk. And that’s OK, actually its great. We need you to do that. Lets just not call you a designer. Lets save that for people that design. Its just simpler that way. I feel that by editing down the definition, we amplify it’s value as something tangible, unique, and essential.
Funny thing I find is that most of these celebs’ persona are most often not the creation of their own. They surely have their own creative directors, stylists, marketing people that craft their image. Tell them what to wear, what “the young people” will respond to… Esp. in this age of multi-media-op-stars it’s very hard to believe Will.I.Am, Lady Gaga and the like just wake up, decide that a meat dress is cool and rock out their future googles.
It’s sad but I don’t take any personal offense. I think that these people will do what they will and be marketing shills. The truly creative will make things and inspire new ideas and there will be others who embody those ideas. It’s rare that the person that creates will also represent, but that also has to do with a lack of understanding of marketing and PR for those who are creative.
Much like the divide between engineers, marketing and designers, there are those that create function, those create emotion, those understand marketing and those that understand business. And all sorts that are in between.
The phenomenon is not new. Pick up a pair of Ralph Lauren Sunglasses. Do you think he had anything to do with those? Alfred Sung deck chairs (just saw those at the Toronto Interior Design Show). heck, even a Starchitect building… how much was done by the “name” and how much by some draftsmen and engineers?
What I do find sad, though not surprising is the misuse and lowering of the Creative Director title. It’s one reason why I didn’t want to give myself that title and opted for something different. There are indeed exceptions (Yo had a few mentioned from Nike a long while back in another post I can’t find), but to my eye, if you are in that roles you have a creative skill. Not coming from marketing, business or management purely, but are a creator at heart and have the management and direction skills to add to a vision. Unfortunately so many corporations see titles like this and others as purely marketing and less vision and more PR.
Personally, I’d rather be an influential designer at a corp. with vision and struggling to get power than CD with no vision and power to waste. IMHO, these are more likely the people who get things done.
I’ve always said “give me power, not the allusion of power, as such I have nothing to contribute”. (Yes, I’ve actually said this)
R
How many Polaroid products has anyone purchased in the last five years? Ten years? With the addition of Stefani Joanne Germanotta, here we, and many, are talking about their design. And there is a question if it was a good idea??
Intel, well, I have a lot of those products inside things, but I don’t have a image at all of the company in my head. William James Adams, Jr, well, I know some of his songs pretty well, sometimes cannot get them out of my head. Click. Intel is up against Nvidia for the future, media, graphics, video. Click.
Stefani has a knack or a talent for surrounding herself with good designers, like her stuff or not, she like Madonna Louise Ciccone, knows how to publicize. They are both talented and creative people, appealing to the mass market. They are going to sit in a few meetings and act unlike everyone else in the room, and it will be worth whatever small percentage got spent on them.
The old “Any press is good press” trick. I agree with your point nxakt. It certainly got us talking, and ruffled some feathers.
