Please don’t ask why we clicked on the headline, but we had already lowered our expectations far enough that we weren’t terribly disappointed.
The real disappointment comes from the realization that overpaid under-talented corporate executives throw serious money at “celebrities” to mouth inane comments about worthless topics, apparently lapped up by mindless subscribers.
In a “You know who you are” moment, we award the coveted Molière Citation to both the corporate executives with their hands on the money spigot and to the cynical (or just plain narcissistic) “celebrities” and “influencers” they pay.
At the same time, the Molière Citations team is heartened by the growing number of incidents in which members of the consuming public reject this nonsense.
The hubris of the corporate executives and their lackeys doesn’t go down well with long-time loyal customers who are told what they will buy and that they have to put up with this “top-down” requirement.
The poster child for this kind of push-marketing is, of course, Bud Light. Just like the “It’s not your father’s Oldsmobile” slogan from so many years ago, It’s no longer your beloved Bud Light. And loyal Bud Light fans abandoned the brand in droves (dropping its market presence from #1 to #3, and still falling).
A cynical observer might connect this kind of mouthpiece marketing to the admonition of the World Economic Forum that in the future everyone (except the WEF members) will own less and enjoy it more. “If I want your opinion, I’ll tell it to you.”
FWIW, the stupid amounts of money flowing from the corporate coffers to “celebrities” for giving unearned endorsements and opinions could be better spent in providing additional pay to the workers who produce the company’s products — or even lowering prices to the consumers. (Surely, the payments involved won’t come out of the compensation packages of the corporate executives — how gauche would that be!?!)
Podcast stars like Joe Rogan, Travis and Jason Kelce, and Alex Cooper
Today’s Molière Citation is awarded jointly to those who pay and those who receive “nine-figure” (that’s 10s of millions) for promoting products and services to members of the public whose intelligence and preferences are completely ignored.
Photo: Joe Rogan, The Joe Rogan Experience