How Celebrities Capitalize On Their Fame

Being famous comes with many perks. Alongside the opportunity to earn plenty of money from appearing in movies, releasing hit songs or winning major sports tournaments, there’s also the opportunity to use status as a platform to sell more stuff, either with your own name plastered on it or that of a sponsor. In a world where celebrities are more exposed than ever before thanks to social media, advertising and more opportunities to appear in film and video, businesses are more than happy to splash the cash in order to ensure their product is not only seen by as many people as possible but gains a reputation. After all, if a heavyweight celebrity trusts a certain product, it must be good!

Just look at the Kardashians. Although their show, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, is an international smash hit, it’s not like the family of fashion icons is breaking any ground with their opinions or actions. Every single episode is packed with plugs for their fashion ranges, and you’ll always see product placements like iPhones, top of the range cars and unbelievable clothing and jewelry, likely offered free of charge so these high-end brands can get some additional exposure. Off TV, the Kardashian’s obviously got a lot of free stuff as well, and a quick flick through Kendall Jenner’s Instagram feed, for example, will reveal an awful lot of skin treatments, beauty products and of course clothing from major brands.

Sports Stars

It’s entirely possible for celebrities to go through life without having to spend a penny on items that everyone else would have to save several months to purchase, but naturally, they’ll need to have the right level of exposure.

English Premier League teams will often have an official sponsor for various items, with one of the most notable being cars. Sportsmen who can sometimes earn tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds a week will often be given a garage full of cars free of charge. When Leicester won the Premier League, the first team all received BMW i8s as a reward for winning, which of course acted as a great advert for the brand.

Gaining access to casinos

Some celebs can even use their status to enjoy a night out or even get some free access to their favorite activities. Probably the richest sportsman in the world retired boxer Floyd Mayweather Jnr is one of the lucky people who can enjoy pretty much free access to any casino in the world, which is lucky as he’s known to be a gambler. He certainly isn’t the only celebrity gambler who has enjoyed some limelight either.

Hollywood actor Ben Affleck is a known poker fanatic, and regularly pops up in tournaments in Las Vegas, and has even played at the World Series of Poker. It’s actually surprising how many news reports there are surrounding celebrities gambling in a casino, many celebrities are big gamblers, and naturally free champagne and the best seat at the table will await them, especially if there’s an opportunity to put a photo on the wall.

Sponsorship deals

One of the biggest perks of being regularly seen is not just receiving things like cars and clothes for free, but actually being paid to wear them. Going back to Mr. Mayweather, it’s alleged that in the run-up to the bout, as well as during the fight, the clothing brands he wore netted him over $20 million, a nice figure to add to his alleged $300 million he earned from the fight itself. Clothing companies are certainly some of the biggest proponents of paying for exposure, and $20 million is a drop in the ocean compared to the potential profits that can be made from sales.

Potentially the benefactor of the world’s largest individual sponsorship deal ever, Cristiano Ronaldo is the king of the sponsorship. The Real Madrid and Portugal star may battle with Lionel Messi for the best footballer of all time title, but he certainly has won the battle for the richest footballer. It’s estimated that a lifetime deal agreed with Nike was worth as much as $1 billion, and his $58 million salaries from Real Madrid was topped up with an additional $35 million in sponsorship bonuses in 2017.

Ronaldo has certainly worked hard to become one of the world’s greatest, and the vast sums of money from sponsorship certainly go to show how lucrative professional sports can be, but they certainly aren’t exciting as one of football’s quirkiest perks. Former England and Leicester City striker and Match of the Day pundit Gary Lineker certainly has a perk that no-one else can say they have; thanks to being a Leicester boy and avid Foxes fan, local crisp brand Walkers snapped Lineker up as a brand representative in 1994. Almost a quarter of a century later, Lineker is still appearing in adverts, and reportedly can have as many bags of walkers as he wants free of charge, until the end of his life, a great perk to add to the estimated £1 million he picks up per year just for being associated with the brand.

Making a difference

Alongside the free stuff, opportunities to jump queues at restaurants and the thousands of companies lining up to pay hard cash for them to wear, eat or promote their products, celebs can also use their image for much greater things in life. Each year in the UK, fundraisers like Children in Need, Sports Relief and Red Nose Day are awash with celebrities making fools of themselves or stepping out of their comfort zones to complete personal challenges or deliver hard-hitting journalism.

Out of all selfish perks, this is one that many celebrities enjoy most, with some famous faces like Bob Geldoff, Bono, and Elton John have gone as far as reducing their working hours to do more philanthropic work, with events like Live Aid the perfect way for celebrities to use their fame to make a difference in the world.

The downside

Being a celebrity may seem like the perfect lifestyle, but in reality, it takes a lot of hard work to get to the point where people want to pay money for you to appear with their product or service. The other side of the coin is that many celebs need to give up their private lives too, leading to a world where everything is available to them, but a walk into their shopping to get a bite to eat involves a carefully planned journey with plenty of security.