Naturally, like the billionaire she is, the multi-hyphenate star celebrated in bed with a bowl of caviar served on a silver platter.
"how I woke up after #FENTYPARFUM sold out this morning!!!" Rihanna captioned her Instagram post.
Read more in Rihanna Celebrates Her Fenty Perfume Selling Out Hours After Launch with Caviar in Bed at People.
I don’t even want to sniff it now.
It’s really off putting. Maybe it is not off putting to her target audience though, what do I know.
Or…maybe she’s just celebrating in her own way? Doesn’t a self-made billionaire deserve to enjoy her new largesse? Perhaps I’m missing something?
There is something gross to me about selling something, especially something that we all know to have outrageous markups, then announcing that you sold lots of it, and then pulling up a bowl of caviar, like, look how much money I took from ya’ll.
I am even more irritated by conspicuous displays of lavish lifestyles to sell a perfume in the brand owner’s name, even if it isn’t so “in your face” that the perfume is subsidizing the lifestyle…some of Aerin Lauder’s perfume commercials, for instance.
But like I said, I am not the target market for Rihanna. (And I’m not the target market for Aerin Lauder, either…)
She’s selling perfume, though, not like…medication or Internet service. Her buyers are hardly being forced to spend their money on her products. It’s one thing for Martin Shkreli to flaunt his ill-begotten wealth; it seems quite another for Rihanna to show her adoring fans the empire their money built her. To me, there’s a distinction between tacky (this) and gross (Shkreli et al.).
Koyel, I think this is at least somewhat about nomenclature. I agree with the distinction but would use tacky and/or gross (and/or crass) for Rihanna, something much worse than gross, probably something I would not use in a comment here, for Shkreli — he is beyond abhorrent. All I said originally about Rihanna was “off putting”.
But it is also somewhat about politics. Whether or not a “self-made billionaire deserves to enjoy her new largesse” is something I can’t answer without breaking my own comment policy, but if you look at reactions to wealthy people flaunting their largesse lately (Jeff Bezos going to space, for instance, or Larry Page getting New Zealand residency), well, let’s just say that not everyone agrees that you deserve to enjoy your largesse howsoever you like just because your customers were not forced to fork over their money.
I think I agree with Robin – given the rough ride other self-made billionaires have had over their recent spending habits i don’t see why Rihanna should get a free pass for flaunting her wealth.
I remember a few years ago when certain sportsmen celebrated their multi-multi-million dollar contracts by having wild times in hotel rooms with drugs & pornstars – I’m guessing they also ‘deserved to enjoy their new largesse’ by ‘celebrating in their own way’ though it doesn’t mean we have to applaud their methods of celebration !
Same here, although I wouldn’t mind someone reporting back on what it’s like.
🙂
The caviar or the perfume ? ?
Another sign that the Apocalypse is upon us.
I too find this information very off-putting. Not that I was interested in her perfume in the first place.