For more than ten years, the world has watched
the charmed lives of the Kardashian-Jenner
family play out on camera and in the tabloids.
If you think keeping up with these Kardashians
has become a little tiresome, you're not alone
— there are signs that the Hollywood engine
that raised them up may be finally getting
sick of them.
For example ...
Partners in slime
Between Kendall Jenner's for-profit promotion
of the shady Fyre festival and her universally-despised
Pepsi ad, people are taking more pleasure
than ever in watching this family get caught
up in scandal.
The Pepsi spot was Kendall's first big ad
campaign as a model, and it was instantly
criticized and scorched to ash for its pretty
gross use of civil unrest and political protest
as a backdrop to sell sugary soda.
The "luxury" Fyre music festival was just
a low-rent, hilarious mess …
"We had no electricity, there was no showers,
there was no bathrooms, there's no, like,
running water."
… a hilarious mess which Kendall was reportedly
paid $250,000 to promote, using her celebrity
and reach to lure unsuspecting people to the
nonexistent island party like a modern-day
siren.
On top of that, the Kardashian-Jenner clan
has come under fire from the federal government
and media watchdogs for not being explicitly
clear when they're posting sponsored content
on social media, and Kendall's now-deleted
Fyre post wasn't tagged accordingly.
Plummeting interest
Beginning in 2007 with a big assist from Ryan
Seacrest, Keeping Up with the Kardashians
is the spark that started the fire that is
the family's mass media takeover.
But there are signs that their ten years of
dominance may be coming to an abrupt and ugly
end.
The ratings for their flagship program are
as low as they have ever been, despite high-profile,
heavily-advertised episodes about shocking
events like Kim's robbery ordeal in Paris.
After 13 seasons and countless spinoffs, fewer
people are keeping up than ever.
And some reports show that magazines putting
Kardashians front and center on their covers
have actually seen their sales decline.
For years, publications have been fretting
over smaller-than-expected returns on their
investments after coughing up big bucks to
court the Kardashians.
If readers aren't interested in seeing them,
then magazines will be less inclined to feature
them.
Media overload
The Kardashian-Jenner empire has spread itself
thin with spin offs met with varying success.
There's been Kourtney & Khloe Take the Hamptons,
Khloe & Lamar, Rob & Chyna, the talk show
Kris, I Am Cait… and that's literally not
even the half of it.
And even people who've never watched an episode
of TV centered on the family has still seen
them in the news.
With Kim being married to Kanye West, every
Kanye story in the news becomes a Kim story,
too.
Lamar Odom's health scare brought Khloe to
his bedside, and the 2016 presidential election
brought Caitlyn Jenner into the culture wars.
"You were just doing all those jokes about
Trump and I actually voted for that guy?"
"I know!
Obviously, you don't watch this show, otherwise
you would have known not to!"
Basically, they've got their fingers in just
about everything, and there's only so much
of that that we can take—or that the family
can sustain.
Celebrity shade
As the Kardashians have grown more successful,
so has the resentment from their peers.
Fashion designer Tim Gunn calls the family
"vulgar" and says they live inside an "aura
of yuck," offering this fashion advice:
"If a Kardashian is wearing it, don't."
But it's not just their senses of style that
have come under fire.
Actor Jonah Hill calls their fame "disgusting,"
while Anna Wintour delivered a devastating
backhand implying the family was tasteless
as she featured them on the cover of Vogue
— that's not shade, that's savagery.
Fabio, of all people, calls the family "nothing
but money whores" who have "no sensitivity."
Barbara Walters delivered perhaps one of the
all-time greatest low-key burns on the Kardashians
"You don't really act, you don't sing, you
don't dance, you don't have any — forgive
me — any talent!"
And actor Daniel Craig agrees, going off on
the Kardashians about how they make their
money, saying, quote, "They're worth millions.
Millions!
You see that and you think, 'What, you mean
all I have to do is behave like a f---ing
idiot on television and then you'll pay me
millions?'"
Fan snub
Every year, the Kardashians give their fans
fewer and fewer reasons to stay onboard, snapping
at fans on social media and in public when
they're not outright misleading them.
(Kylie, we will never—ever!—believe those
lips are real.)
Antics like these only serve to drive away
existing fans, and don't do a lot to draw
in new ones, which one would think would be
essential at a time when interest in the family
seems to have plateaued.
So while Kylie may be queen of Snapchat now,
there's nowhere to go from there but down.
Just ask Kim about how that feels.
The Kardashians' success has been incredible,
but it's earned them a lot of scorn, and reputations
they won't be able to easily shake.
This empire will fall one day, and if they
aren't careful, there might not be anyone
there to catch them when it happens.
To put it bluntly, the Kardashians and Jenners
would do well to figure out what a lot of
their fans already know: keeping up with the
Kardashians is so 2007.
"You are so delusional."
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