Should F1 be celebrating the value of modern celebrity?

Lewis Hamilton may have cross-over star power into the world of celebrity... but should F1 also be enticing modern celebrity into its world too?
Should F1 be celebrating the value of modern celebrity?

Modern celebrity 'hashtag' perplexes me. Obviously, I have come across the names 'Kardashian', 'Jenner' and 'Delevingne' in recent months, but my understanding as to why they trend, break the internet or generate pandemonium wherever they go baffles me a little.

Whilst this may be a watershed moment for me in accepting that the relevance of what is considered fame has deviated from the days of my formative years, watching the fevered buzz of bolshie photographers and po-faced security as they circled the tiny, pouting figure of Cara Delevingne and crabbed across the grid awkwardly during the Monaco Grand Prix was bemusing in the extreme.

Nevertheless, it's far too late (and too much effort) for me to get on my soapbox to ask why trussed-up selfies receive millions of likes and retweets, why we add to the publicity machine by discussing it (like I am aware I am now) or how some have developed the modern equivalent of the chicken and egg dilemma by being famous for being famous.

With this in mind, if you can put aside the how, what, where and why of these people - who I am sure are perfectly lovely... -, there is something embracing about their fleeting flirtation with F1 in Monaco and I wonder whether it may well just prove the key to opening it up to a different audience.

Much has been said about 'the show' and the wider publicity surrounding F1, and while Lewis Hamilton's hankering to combine celebrity with his sporting prowess has left many rolling their eyes, you can understand Bernie Ecclestone when he says that he is a better and bolder ambassador for the sport in the way he courts the wider perks of being one of the world's most famous men, which in turn helps power the spluttering publicity machine more smoothly

However, whilst Lewis Hamilton is famous in his own right and, more than any other driver, counts celebrities and non-F1 watchers as fans, his global notoriety and footprint remains relatively small when placed against the aforementioned women... even when he is letting his braided hair down and giving 'zero f****' with a spot of down-time in Barbados.

Granted, 100 per cent of people reading this will know who Lewis Hamilton is and a Google search may be required to picture the others, but outside the motorsport bubble and into the wider world, he is a relative bit-part player.

Take for example Hamilton's Instagram account. On it he has 1.5m followers and his posts generate around 65,000 likes each. When he posted one of himself tagged with models Kylie Jenner and Gigi Hadid in the wake of the Monaco Grand Prix, this swelled to nearly 85,000.

Yet, if you head over to Kylie Jenner's Instagram account with its 31.1m followers and the post of her watching the Monaco Grand Prix drew nearly one million likes... and that is the norm. Putting aside the argument as to how it is possible that a fairly dull photograph of her looking out of the window (no car to be seen) would generate seven-figures worth of love, it's instantaneous publicity for a sport not exactly basking in glory at the moment.

Whether Bernie would necessarily appreciate the calibre of new fan it may generate given his comments about young audiences remains to be seen, but for companies like Mercedes and Red Bull especially, the marketing value just by association won't be ignored.

Indeed, when modern day marketing value is measured in mentions, clicks, photographs and tags, the quick and easy association with these modern day celebrities has an extraordinary worth.

Of course, F1 has always garnered celebrity fans, but while film stars like Al Pacino - who attended the Canadian Grand Prix (conveniently around the time his new film comes out) -, Michael Fassbender and Leonardo di Caprio generate their publicity around their work and generally escape to privacy the rest of the time, the likes of Kylie Jenner, Cara Delevingne and Gigi Hadid have helped developed a new breed of publicity... self-publicity, opening up their lives to millions in the time it takes to type a tweet or filter a photo.

It is perhaps no coincidence that Gigi Hadid was back and hanging out with Mercedes during the Canadian Grand Prix, no doubt positioned correctly near a three-pointed star when the paparazzi surfaced.

Remember the days when Jordan used to launch its cars with, well, the model formerly known as Jordan, and the excitement and column inches (steady...) it generated? I was only 10 years old and not really interested in F1 back then, but I still remember seeing it in the newspaper and makes me long for the days when F1 launches weren't simply rolled out of the pit garage at 8am on a nippy February morning in Spain.

Model of the moment Cara Delevingne is a great example. In Monaco as a TAG Heuer ambassador, the paps were whipped into a frenzy as she stepped inside one of the McLaren cars... that moment will have been printed around the world in gossip magazines and on numerous websites. In short, McLaren and Honda get positive association and a mention in the front pages of a newspaper, yet there will be no mention of that fact it is struggling for competitiveness at the moment. Win-Win.

Now, far be it from me to suggest the powers that be sell itself out for shameless publicity in the name of getting F1 out to a wider audience, but in a sport (or is it a business?) where branding is critical to its survival - whether that is through manufacturers or sponsors - it cannot afford to ignore the potential presented to it. Kylie Jenner, Cara Delevingne and Gigi Hadid are surely just the tip of an iceberg.

Whilst my personal definition of a role model is usually associated with someone who has won Olympic medals, negotiated peace treaties or generally contributed to society in an extraordinary manner, since we will never be able to entirely dictate what resonates with the wider public, there is arguably more worth to be had in embracing it for gain, than bemoaning it for principle...

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