Celebrity endorsements are as old as celebrity itself. The premise has always been that if someone who is known by more people than you are likes your stuff enough to buy it, advertising that fact ought to be good for more sales.
And what does the celebrity get? Some economic reward and, perhaps much more importantly in this case, some reputational burnishing. Young celebrities operate in a market where the speed of irrelevance and obsolescence is exponentially faster than it is in tech. Having your investment in some electronic-related product suggests you are savvy, hip and sort of smart. All good from a personal branding standpoint.
The product gets some attention, which is useful, particularly in the app space where new entries are appearing faster than zits after a candy bar. Oh, and the company that makes it gets some money, which is always helpful.
So is this good, bad, indifferent, a trend, a farce, a benefit, an outrage?
All of the above is the logical answer. But, in truth, with the wealth gap being what it is and the need for investment in new ideas so important, any redistribution of income to more productive uses is welcome. JL
Hunter Walk reports in GigaOm:
Some might snicker upon hearing that Disney singer/actress Selena Gomez has Angel- invested in a photo app but I think it’s great, and makes total sense. The trend of ‘celebrity angels’ doesn’t surprise me at all, and with correct expectations on both sides, it can provide great value to both sides. But this still leaves the question — why are we suddenly seeing celebrities become more involved in tech investing?
We forget that any celebrity under the age of 30 isn’t too different from any of us. They grew up in a world of mobile phones, game consoles and the Internet. While I might wax nostalgic about the first time i fired up a Mosaic browser, Ashton Kutcher has similar memories of his 2000 StarTAC and original AOL buddy list. They are digital natives who use technology as professionals and people