Warhol, social media and viral marketing

Ok, guys, look – I really don’t get this. Predicting the ephemeral character of the media (even more so with the new media), Warhol said in the 60s “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”

A recent adaptation referring to social media and blogging is the claim that “In the future, everyone will be famous to fifteen people” or “On the Web, everyone will be famous to fifteen people”. Don’t get it.

I think they missed the point (it scares me to think how often this happens). This was a line in one of Warhol’s exhibition catalogs and he was often asked about this statement till he became so bored and he attempted to confuse interviewers by changing the statement to “In the future 15 people will be famous” and “In 15 minutes everybody will be famous. Well, I guess it worked.

It’s all about the short life of fame; ephemeral literally means, “lasting only one day”, and it’s about duration and not about audience. If we have to come with a modern day adaptation that should be related to viral promotions – get all those with a high SNP – Social Networking Potential (I’ve learned my buzzwords and I love them), create viral messages to appeal to this particular segment and become famous on the net. For about 15 minutes, as none of the guys who made it to the homepage of Digg stayed there for too long.

Fame lasted longer when people used to collect magazines, special edition newspapers and record TV shows on VHS tapes. Brilliant prediction Mr. Warhol!

I can put up with many of you using quotes you don’t get, but changing them and creating modern day adaptations… hmm, I’d rather you left those quotes alone