WIP
I tweeted a more cautious version of this blogpost in July, and it’s been on my mind so I wanted to take some time to think out loud about it.
“Paris Hilton is a hustler. Kim Kardashian is a hustler. And you mother fuckers are the johns. Every time you complained about Paris or Kim being plastered all over magazines or TV shows, you just made them more famous. Because whether or not you liked or hated them, you were paying attention to them. Your gaze is worth money to companies, and if they know Paris and Kim command a gaze, good or bad, they’ll shell out paper for that.” – /u/yungsnuggie
Boilerplate:
I’m not a medical professional, psychiatrist or psychologist or anything of the sort.
The word “narcissist” has several meanings. If I could, I think to keep the focus on “excessive interest in or admiration of oneself” than “extreme selfishness, with a grandiose view of one’s own talents and a craving for admiration” or “self-centredness arising from failure to distinguish the self from external objects”.
When I use the term “narcissist PR”, I’m doing it in a rather glib, playful and silly way – much like how Venkat from Ribbonfarm uses phrases like “Sociopath” and “Loser” in The Gervais Principle. Why am I doing this? Why not use some other phrase? I’m not entirely sure, to be honest. The phrase just came to me, and it stuck. I feel like there’s something to it that even I don’t fully understand, which is why I’m sitting here writing this.
Clarifications and misunderstandings:
Do I think that only medical-grade narcissists partake in Narcissist PR? No, I don’t. I think Narcissist PR is a game that anybody can play. But it does seem to me that having an inclination to admire oneself and/or love attention is… helpful.
Do I think Elon Musk is a narcissist? I agree with his own assessment that he might be one.
Do I think narcissism is bad? Eh, not necessarily. I’m a little biased here. I think I’m about a 7 on the 1-10 narcissism scale, where 10 is someone like Donald Trump, speaking about himself in the third person,
Who are some examples of people who have used narcissist PR?
Donald Trump is the big one. Trump used narcissist PR to build his image and he used it to ride into the White House. Elon Musk is another. They both borrow from the PT Barnum playbook of spectacle and superlatives.
Who else? Gene Simmons comes to mind. Lady Gaga. Marilyn Manson, perhaps. Paris Hilton. Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. /u/YungSnuggie had a comment about Paris and Kim “taught celebrities and wannabe celebrities how to manipulate the paparazzi and tabloids in your favor.”
Who *doesn’t* fit the bill? Obviously, ordinary everyday folks who don’t have any sort of PR. But what about public figures?
Ok, now let’s try to define what narcissist PR *is*.
One feature of narcissist PR is related to an age-old aphorism, “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”.
People can’t shut up about it. They take the bait. They have to argue about it, whether it’s good or bad, whether the person is a hero or a villain.
There’s this idea of “the charismatic-narcississtic boss” who’s incompetent. What I think is interesting is the idea that a boss might be both. that they might know their shit