Is it wrong to recognize Kim K but not the other?
Earlier today I came across a photo post with a message in the caption that a friend of mine shared on Facebook, which was supposed to humorously criticize what our society has become. As you can see, there are Kim K on the left and a historic figure that people may or may not recognize at once on the right. And the caption reads:
If you know who this is and don’t know who this is, then you are everything wrong with the world today.
They may have recognized him if they have keen interests in science, physics, history, or simply Thomas Edison since high school.
It was amusing to me at first. Anyone who is familiar with Kim K and her clan will also probably find this very amusing. Because it is likely that he/she would not know who the person on the right is, assuming though that this must be somebody important in history.
But then, it got me thinking. All the amusement aside, two things were clear to me.
One, apparently the person who created and started circulating this message was very bitter about what the world is becoming.
I am talking about the world, specifically pop culture driven. Do you remember the time when Paris Hilton was in the spotlight? She was extremely popular and paparazzi were snapping every move of hers? Other than her infamous sex tape, she was famous for nothing. Well, okay, other than something called socialite. Okay, let me rephrase it. She had an ill-fated reality show called Simple Life. But, please, let’s not go where she tried at singing. Oops, I just did, didn’t I?
In our celebrity obsessed culture, Hilton represented the peak of just that at the time, in spite of the sex tape scandal, and she was everywhere. And, let’s face it. It was ridiculous.
And these days Kim K is emulating just that. And if you didn’t know Kim K was Hilton’s assistant. Okay, actually, what Kim K is doing a whole lot bigger than Hilton’s. If you live in LA, and specifically, drive on I-405, there was no way that you would not have seen her big OOH ad, so big that drivers can’t miss the ads that go up and cover two sides of a building standing by the freeway, around the time when her reality show’s new season was premiered.
Of course not everyone is thrilled about ‘entertainment news’ on her and her equally famous husband (for his ridiculousness than his rap music nowadays), her reality shows, and ubiquitous presence online and offline, including her mobile app. And apparently the creator of this Facebook message is not that pleased about the fact that people do not know, let alone recognize, who Nikola Tesla was.
The other thing that is clear to me is that the creator of this message apparently exhibited a level of unfairness in selecting examples when trying to make a point.
Let me explain.
The gentleman on the right is Nikola Tesla, whom I suspect many of you recognize. He was a Serbian American inventor, electrical engineer and physicist and came to America to work for Thomas Edison via Paris. He was well educated in engineering, unlike Edison, showcased the high level of creative mind and exceptional genius through the body of his work resulting in a slew of patents. And maybe because of that reason, it was inevitable for many to witness the feud between them over AC/DC. Eventually Tesla’s AC won out, so it is unequivocal that his contribution to our society is humongous. And yet, not many can explain the story behind AC nor is aware that there’s one, unlike they would on Edison with the light bulb.
But what’s troubling me is the logic behind this Facebook message with a comparison of Tesla to Kim K.
Why on earth Tesla?
To many Tesla means an automaker in spite of the fact that some of them may not be familiar with the name Elan Musk. Is that just a coincidence that NiKola Tesla was chosen to be compared to Kim K, when the name Tesla has become a synonym with fancy electric cars? Why could the creator of this message not pick the most recent physics Nobel laureate from the US in 2014, such as Japanese American electronic engineer and inventor Shoji Nakamura?
I am sure that, to those who do not follow on who won this year’s Nobel Prize, it would not make a difference, meaning they would be clueless as to who Nakamura is from just looking at a photo of him. Unless, it is someone already famous, such as President Obama. I am sure that many of you still remembers him winning a Nobel Peace Prize not long after sworn in the White House.
And yet, Tesla was chosen for the comparison. It is truly misleading at the level of how marketers disguise something to the consumers or manipulate things in front of public eye.
Don’t get me wrong.
In our 24/7, 365-day gossip and tabloid driven day and age, celebrities are more vulnerable than ever before for their image control, and it is understandable that they do everything to protect their image and privacy. I do not have to remind you of the ‘news’ not long ago as to how much Kim K makes per tweet for her product and service enforcements. But I did, and there’s a reason why.
I touched upon Paris Hilton’s 15 minutes of fame above. Unlike the negative feedback and insane media portrayal of Paris that she was famous for nothing, the empire that Kim K has built to those who know in the entrepreneur world can’t let anyone put that nickname tag on her.
As Gary Vaynerchuck pointed out a few times in his keynotes and The Ask Gary V Show, now the word entrepreneur is in fashion, thanks to all the Silicon Valley startups, private equity firms, venture capitalists and angel investors. And let me remind you that Kim K is one of them, in fact. She courted Brian Lee, a serial entrepreneur who made a fortune in Legalzoom.com, into her venture idea and turned ShoeDazzle.com into a multimillion dollar business. Lee also invested in the Honest Company, aka Jessica Alba’s company selling safe baby products. Kim K knows how to promote herself and sells products, and that is why her (and her clans) reality shows are still working and is big in the social media scene.
So, the point that I am trying to make actually brings about questions.
Is it really wrong to know who Kim K is, in spite of all the pointless and nonsense reality show crap?
Is it really wrong to know what she tweets about along with her husband who went on and on and on about becoming the next black president at the awards show?
Or do we agree that they sure know how to market themselves regardless of how ridiculous the words coming out of their mouths sound or put up stupid reality shows with loyal fans they create?
And let me ask you this.
Is anyone, who doesn’t know who Tesla was, everything wrong with the world today?
I am not sure if the message is even a fair statement nor do I agree with it. This isn’t even an apples to apples comparison to begin with anyway.
