Branding Reality Stars

For this project I wanted to focus on Oulette’s reading and the quote, “On reality television, virtually everyone is expected to be an entrepreneur of the self, incited to envision his or her humanity as the building blocks of a marketable personable enterprise.” I did a response for this reading a couple of weeks ago but this time I wanted to look more into how reality tv shows have turned these people into stars. Lauren Conrad is a perfect example of someone who used reality television as a building block for her career. She was first featured on Laguna Beach and then The Hills where she was the main beloved character who had an interest for fashion. She created a name for herself on this show and turned that name into a brand, she now has a clothing line at Kohl’s called LC Lauren Conrad. On the contrary, I included Farrah Abraham who was first on 16 and Pregnant and now on a spin off show called Teen Mom OG. She was featured on these shows as the spoiled brat who was rude to her mom and too concerned about her looks. A brand is the perception and the series of morals and values a company or a person may hold. Farrah has branded herself as someone who now does sex tapes and scandalous photoshoots. She has received a lot of negative feedback for what she is doing today but she used the reality television platform to make a name for herself and the morals she stands by for her brand, which is herself, may be different than the standards Lauren Conrad holds herself too.

I decided to include the quote in the beginning paired with the cast of Laguna Beach and the 16 and Pregnant logo as well as clips of Farrah on TMZ and her boob job surgery after she was on the show. The audio in the beginning is from SNL and is a joke on how a lot of reality tv stars let fame get to their head. I also included a clip of Farrah and her daughter from 16 and Pregnant visiting her BF’s grave and a gossip video talking about the ventures she has taken after the show. For Lauren Conrad I included The Hills theme song and then a feature of her on E! which was about Pop Innovators to show that she has used her fame to leverage her brand. All the clips are taken from Youtube and the images were found on google.