Celebrities Win Elegant Titles to Represent Famous Brands

The New York Times

It’s getting harder and harder to keep track of job titles invented for celebrities. Every week there seems to be a new creative director, vice president or leader of something.

In December, the singer Cardi B announced who would go on to work for Playboy as their first resident creative director. (She is also a partner at Whipshots, a vodka and whipped cream combo released earlier this month.)

Cardi B is part of the growing list of celebrities associated with the brands, which includes Emily Ratajkowski, partner and creative director of Loops Beauty (masks); Dakota Johnson, co-creative director and investor in Maude (sexual health and wellness products); Prince Harry, Vice President of Impact at BetterUp (employee training company); Kendall Jenner (Creative Director of Online Boutique Fwrd); Drew Barrymore (Garnier Creative Director (Hair and Skin Care), Jennifer Aniston, Vital Proteins Vice President of Creative (Supplements) and ASAP Rocky, PacSun Guest Art Director (Apparel & Accessories).

In the past, famous people signed with brands as “spokespersons” or to serve as the “face” of the brand. With the rise of social media marketing came the flood of “ambassadors.” Now, corporate positions previously reserved for fashion house stylists or creative directors at advertising agencies are increasingly part of the résumés of actors, singers and models.

This type of post has become so commonplace that when highly flirtatious comedian Pete Davidson and South Korean actor HoYeon Jung, star of Netflix’s “Round 6,” took control of Calvin Klein’s Instagram account this week, many people assumed that an announcement was about to appear about new jobs for both of them at the company. (A representative of Calvin Klein declined to comment.)

“If you’re the face of a brand, or its ambassador, you represent it,” said Susan Douglas, professor of communications and media at the University of Michigan. “This position does not suggest talent or a specific contribution. But a ‘creative director’ is someone with executive or creative skills. It’s a way of polishing the person’s personal imprint, demonstrating that he is more than a pretty face.”

Some of the companies that have established celebrity relationships are not well-known names. We’re not talking about big companies like Capital One (which has Jennifer Garner and Samuel L. Jackson as spokespersons) or Nespresso (for which George Clooney serves as a brand ambassador).

But that could actually be a benefit, Douglas said. “Specialized companies don’t want to be seen like Procter & Gamble,” Douglas said. “They want to create the impression that they’ve studied people, and they know what they want. Right now, authenticity is the currency.”

It is a two-way validation system. “The star becomes a symbol of the brand, and the brand qualities mirror or reinforce the qualities we associate with the star,” said Andrea McDonnell, associate professor of communication at Providence College.

In the case of Cardi B and Playboy, McDonnell said, “her personal brand revolves around her empowered sexuality. She’s a woman stepping into a space historically centered on men.”

Hiring her as creative director, McDonnell said, could “lead the brand in a different direction, expand the audience and perhaps help with damage control.” (In a clip about an A&E documentary series about Hugh Hefner and Playboy released last week, Holly Madison, who lived in the Playboy Mansion and was one of Hefner’s girlfriends, said she “collapsed under the pressure” of live there.)

It is not known to what extent these new positions are merely vanity titles. Some celebrities should certainly be more involved than others.

Eva Goicochea, founder and chief executive of Maude, a sexual health and wellness company, said Johnson joined the company as part of an “advisory and investment” deal. A project she, the company and the Sex Museum are collaborating on is expected to debut in the spring.

Goicochea said he had no intention of working with a famous person previously. “A lot of people think they have the Midas touch,” she said, referring to the king of mythology who turned everything he touched to gold. “That all you need to do is for a celebrity to post a message about you and you’ll be swimming in cash. Maybe in the short term. But you need to avoid any shortsightedness about the potential of the partnership and its downside.”

For starters, she says, stars are people, and they can say the wrong thing when representing the company. But there is also a risk that the brand will start to revolve too much around one person. “It starts to be about the celebrity and not what the company does,” said Goicochea.

Her advice to a company that is courting a celebrity or being courted by her is to check the celebrity’s background very carefully. After all, maintaining a positive and distinctive public image – as a person and as a company – has become increasingly important.

“There is a battle for visibility,” Douglas said. “What is the scarcest resource? People’s attention. You have to have your name constantly circulating, or people forget.”