16th Minute of Fame

"In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." Andy Warhol.

Influencers/Content Creators are those who have fulfilled Warhol’s famous and prophetic words. Though, it is argued that there is an additional minute, the 16th minute, where the Influencer/Creator has potentially a second lease on life.

The 16th Minute, is a secondary form of the 15 minutes of fame which doesn’t involve the same medium or cultural notoriety as an individual would have in the initial 15 minutes. In-short a re-invention of the person.

The 16th Minute has always been there. Some would think Madonna is the perfect example, but I disagree, as she had 4/5 decades of reinvention in music alone. A better example would be the Rock who has ventured from wrestling to film and more recently into business, or? 50 Cent, who began his 15 Minutes as a rapper, then became an actor, now a television producer, and businessman; Victoria Beckham, once a Popstar, is a serious Fashion Designer; or even Donald Trump (it’s safe to say he is possibly on his 20th-Minute considering his numerous career changes and counting……life is unfair).?

For the 16th Minute to be achievable, the Influencer must treat themselves as a business and surround themselves with the right people and good advisors from the start.

This 16th Minute is not uncommon, but it is still rare for many in this small club of celebrityhood. Currently, we are watching in real-time Jojo Siwa’s attempt to make the leap from Child-Actor-Realty Star to “hopeful” Popstar. This career change has attracted a lot of online mockery (or momentum). This is a daunting task, and on a certain level, you do feel sorry for Siwa (as Christopher Caflin neatly summarises the issues for Siwa https://www.tiktok.com/@christopherclaflin/video/7359751966798417195). It takes a thick skin, chutzpah, luck, and even a pound of flesh for this metamorphosis into the 16th Minute to be quasi-successful.

Look at the rebirth of Paris Hilton, from "It" Girl and Reality-TV Star, who was a polarising figure as kitsch culture personified (for that time); now, she occupies a different space. One where she is more respected, the genesis of which came from This is Paris (2020). The documentary uncovers her experiences with emotional, verbal, and physical abuse during her time at various boarding schools when she was a teenager. She showed her vulnerability and gave another part of herself to the public again (“a pound of flesh”), which in turn enabled her to have the 16th Minute, later allowing her to capitalise on her reformed brand with Grey Goose and Marc Jacobs by way of example.

All the examples of success, such as Hilton, Victoria Beckham, the Rock and Trump, had considerable cultural capital to allow for this change (not to mention other facts like a powerful personal story, eye for fashion/talent and a superhuman form of toxic ego, respectively). The question is, does Jojo Siwa have enough of this Cultural Capital to transform once again into another butterfly? We shall see.

What is Cultural Capital? In short, it is a person’s (or company’s) recognisability by the public at large by the 15 Minutes of Fame they had or are having. Most people would recognise the Rock from his wrestling days when seeing one of his films, as compared to, say, the Proclaimers on Pitch Perfect (2012).

This is where Influencers are starting to struggle. We are currently seeing ( many of their viewership/scribers’ interests have outgrown or starting to grow out of the Influencer’s content (or the Influencer themself), marking an Influencer’s expiring 15 Minutes of Fame and their recently diminishing Cultural Capital.

From experience and also from just looking at various social media platforms, you can see some Influencers are attempting to capitalise on their success before their 15 Minutes are up by venture into different mediums, with varying success. For example KSI/the Sidemen generally have gone into merchandising/commerce or Logan Paul going into wrestling (I will be wager he will go into acting soon after, doing what the Rock has done). The examples of the Celebrities and Influencers given are in the upper echelons of public life, but they are used to show clearly their career pivot from one field to another to help prove the 16th Minute theory. The likes of Dion Dublin would have been mentioned (and has done incredibly well transitioning from Footballer to TV personality), but Dublin may not have registered with you as well as the Rock.

How can Influencers get this 16th Minute? Who knows, in short. To become an Influencer or a Celebrity is basically winning the lottery. Your efforts/timing bought the ticket, and the circumstances matched your numbers and boom, you are now famous. This is the same as the 16th Minute, but this is the Influencer’s or Celebrity’s second lottery ticket. My guess is the “numbers” you will need must include the following:

1)??? try/hard-work;

2)??? analyse your personal strengths and weaknesses, and see how they can be leveraged;

3)??? apply your strength to mediums that work well with you, e.g. if you are people’s person, you are likely to succeed interviewing people/podcasting;

4)??? build momentum and in effect build a new CV;

5)??? utilise your Cultural Capital to help build that momentum in point 4; and

6)??? a lot of luck!

However, please read this article with a pinch of salt. This was written by a lawyer who is an outsider looking into the Social Media industry, as someone who sees the culmination of a deal. This viewpoint comes from negotiating and drafting various Brand Partnership or Ambassador Agreements, with a focus not only on mitigating risk but also on helping improve an Influencer’s position, which, in turn, hopefully, helps improve the commercial element of their career, rather than overall brand strategy.

Back to the point. The 16th Minute consolidates the gains made in the first 15 minutes, usually through the Cultural (and/or monetary) Capital gained by the Influencer and investing that Capital into a new career or securing their and/or their family’s futures. This is achieved (or at times realised) through foresight (or, unfortunately, hindsight). The view of “being a Brand” belies, and it is argued, infantilises the commercial output of these individuals who are akin to SMEs but finite in their time and have an obsolescence.

For this 16th Minute to be even achievable, the Influencers must treat themselves as a business, not a brand, and surround themselves with the right people and good advisors, especially if they have a million or more followers, not several thousand.

If you’re an Influencer, burn bright and enjoy your fame, but, if you can, save some of that light for darker times.