Celebrities once hid endorsements but now openly become entrepreneurs

Evidence

In the 1990s, top-tier Hollywood talent often resisted product endorsements, agreeing to appear only in Japanese TV commercials, where their involvement was less likely to be noticed. In the twenty-first century, they were no longer just spokespeople but founders and investors. Once they were recast as entrepreneurs, there was no shame in promotional activities. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 655

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the ‘death of the sellout’ mechanism — selling out lost its stigma once everyone became a founder. — connects to: Paid celebrity endorsements were pioneered and normalized for women’s products in the 1920s — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 220