Selfies are everywhere. Those individual photos taken facing a mirror, or with the camera on a phone awkwardly turned to capture the subject have framed the likes of teenagers, adults, celebrities and other public figures.
This trend has been around a lot longer than it’s cutesy name: historians put the first “selfies” towards the end of the 19th century, but the immediacy of taking and sharing photos in the 21st century has added fuel to this particular fire.
More specifically, Times attributed selfie popularity to a rise in social media use, naming it one of the Top 10 Trends for 2012, while others have noted the connection to smartphones, which have quickly become the standard form for mobile communication technology.
In a recent article for the BBC, reporter Charissa Coulthard pointed out that there have even been technological updates to accommodate selfie culture; namely the front-mounted cameras found on many new smartphone models.
“You only need this second, forward-facing camera if you want to take pictures of yourself. Could there be any more conclusive indication of the ubiquity of the self-portrait or “selfie”?”
Coulthard goes on to look at how widespread the trend is, taking note of “serial uploaders of selfies” like Rhianna, Justin Beiber, Lady Gaga, Madonna and model Kelly Brook who took so many selfies “she ended up ‘banning’ herself”.
“Selfie-ism is everywhere. The word “selfie” has been bandied about so much in the past six months it’s currently being monitored for inclusion in the Oxford Dictionary Online,” Coulthard observed.
With such widespread acceptance – and even appreciation for selfies in some cases – it was only a matter of time before these images became fodder for marketing execs.
Take the latest series of Australia’s Next Top Model: the revamped Fox8 production, now hosted by Jennifer Hawkins, has run a competition called Australia’s Next Top Selfie.
The competition involved entrants posing for a selfie and uploading it to Twitter or Instagram with the hashtags #antmselfie and #fox8tv.
The winner of the competition will receive VIP passes to the Australia’s Next Top Model finale, including 5-star accommodation, flights, private transfers and $1000 to “get red-carpet ready”. The starring selfie would also feature in an issue of Cosmopolitan magazine, adding to a prize pool valued at $13,790 – a telling pricetag for this element of the show’s marketing.
But perhaps more significant is the fact that the promotion attracted over 60,000 entries as well as widespread media attention. The latter is mainly due to criticism that the promotion could potentially lead to the exploitation of young women.
But Fox8 said that the promotion was simply utilising a trend already popular around the world.
“There’s no doubt that the socially engaged fans of Australia’s Next Top Model have embraced Australia’s Next Top Selfie,” a spokesperson for Fox8 said in response to criticism.
“The “selfie” is a global social media phenomenon that is fun and light-hearted – just like this promotion.”
This statement, however, highlights how “normal” selfies now are, both online and in marketing campaigns. So much so, in fact, that the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched a campaign to make sure selfies and other social media posts do not turn into sneaky product promotions.
The crux of the FTC’s concern has to do with celebrities and the brands they are linked to. While anyone can post a pic of themselves using a particular lip gloss or wearing a particular brand, celebrities often have their own brands and agendas.
Take Kim Kardashian, for example. Though treated more as a celebrity than a businesswoman, she has an almost insurmountable number of business partnerships and affiliations.
So when she posted a pic of her using lipgloss – followed by the comment “Pregnancy lips…. @EOS to the rescue! LOL” – many people wondered whether or not there was a business relationship between her and EOS.
Then there was James Franco, who recently posted a picture on his Twitter and Instagram accounts with the caption “Book signing – tomorrow”. The selfie attracted over 24,000 likes and hundreds of comments on his accounts.
Other celebrities use selfies to promote their movies, books, concerts, public appearances…the list goes on.
While not everyone uses the selfie trend to promote products or services, the many individuals and companies that are incorporating selfies into promotional activities suggest that they are one of the newest and most valuable forms of online currency.
And if the Australia’s Next Top Model promotion is anything to go by, Quid can’t help but wonder whether Andy Warhol would be surprised by such a trend.
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