The New York Observer has an interesting piece out this week on, in the words of Observer editor Elizabeth Spiers, “the tendency of new money webby types to plaster their Facebook pages with photos of themselves mugging with celebrities.”
Brian Gallagher, the author of the piece, spoke to Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, a social scientist of sorts who has spent her career studying fame and celebrity, and she proposes something that makes total sense that I had never really picked up on: That newly famous web geeks love to bask in their new found fame, and celebrities like to hangout with newly famous web geeks because it makes them appear more hip.
The fresh-faced entrepreneurs “grew up geeky guys and now they are gazillionaires, and they can settle past scores,” Ms. Currid-Halkett explained. “It imbues a particular product with coolness or glamour. You have an entrepreneur spending time with stars and that adds cachet to the brand. ‘My gosh, there must be something cool about that venture capitalist that all these Hollywood people would be photographed with him.’”
So, Mark Pincus, Farmville creator and Facebook billionaire: that tweet pic of you getting Jason Alexander to jokingly pay for dinner with your Black Card? Canny business decision! Jim Breyer, venture capital genius and Silicon Valley heartthrob: those pictures of you on your Facebook wall with Beyoncé, Shakira, Jessica Simpson and Will Smith? Not gauche! Brand building. And Tim Draper, founder of go-go venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson: that picture that Steve Jurvetson took of you picking up Natalie Portman was not irrational or vaguely creepy. Just exuberant! Not weird at all.
However, the adoration flow may be starting to flow in the opposite direction, as well, though mostly to the one-man Z-list named Mark. “Facebook is the essence of cool,” said Ms. Currid-Halkett. “Maybe not if you’re a hipster on the Lower East Side, but there’s no question that as far as tech companies go, it’s about as forward thinking and sexy as you can get. Celebrities want to show up at Facebook’s headquarters more than Mark Zuckerberg needs to go to the Vanity Fair Oscar party.”
You know who else is a star-f*cker? Elmo. Just sayin’…
(Pic of Farmville founder Mark Pincus with Jason Alexander via. Pic of Zuck and Katy Perry via)
