Celebrity fame in the 2000s converted directly into brand-licensing empire building

Evidence

Then Hilton decided to become an entrepreneur: “I’m glad I got the partying out of my system when I was young, because now I’m so over it and I can focus on my career.” She had two particular business heroes: Sean “P.Diddy” Combs and her old family friend Donald Trump. “He’s built this whole empire—hotels, casinos, resorts, a television show.” At that moment, Trump was enjoying a career resurgence thanks to his reality game show, The Apprentice. In the Trump model, Hilton flooded the market with cash-grab handbags and body sprays. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 157

Categorization

• XREF: The celebrity-as-brand-empire move anticipates the flattened status economy where name signals nothing about craft, tying into the omnivore monoculture collapse of meaningful taste signals.