Paris Hilton, great-grandchild of the Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton, was the poster child of noughties pop-culture, and credited as one of the first people to be ‘famous for being famous’. Putting her name and face to cult classic reality TV programme The Simple Life (2004-2007), she & Nicole Richie embarked on living a ‘middle class’ life and created a series of iconic phrases to be used for decades to come…#ThatsHot.
During my university placement, I worked with marketing agency The Fitting Room. TFR have their feet firmly in the popular culture realm when it comes to planning launches, with one of their brand analysis’ being labelled ‘The Paris Effect’. Through clever paparazzi manipulation, a series of Juicy Couture tracksuits, slogan t-shirts and bedazzled flip phones, Paris created an iconic uniform for 00’s ‘it’ girls.
Think early Kim Kardashian, before the sex tape and KarJenner empire, she was known as Paris’ assistant and closet organiser, with a cameo on The Simple Life. Miley Cyrus even recently revived Paris’ music career, with a cover of Stars Are Blind during her televised New Year’s Eve special. Analysing these celebrities’ careers, using them as marketing tools, and honing back to the nostalgia of audiences’ childhoods and teenage years…these are the celebrities who we looked up to, whether we liked it or not.
