Kim Kardashian West is worth £275 million. She owns four businesses, produces one of the most successful reality TV shows of all time and has endless endorsements. She is an author, actor and currently training to begin a law career. All of which has been built from her ability to capture public interest.
Kardashian West is as popular as she is polarizing, not just for her controversial moments but because you seemingly cannot escape her. Her talent is her ability to monetize attention and build brands based off the idea that all press is good press. She has proven, time and time again, that she doesn’t necessarily care about being socially responsible – at least, not when it comes to exploiting women.
You will likely have already heard of her latest shapewear brand, not for its rave reviews but because she offended millions of people with the initial brand name, Kimono. Accused of cultural appropriation – and not for the first time, either – the backlash was so intense that Kardashian West has since changed the name to Skims.
‘Nice underwear, but as a Japanese woman who loves to wear our traditional dress, kimono, I find the naming of your products baffling since it has no resemblance to kimono,’ Yuko Kato, BBC News Japanese editor tweeted, ‘if not outright culturally offensive, especially if it’s merely a word play on your name.’
Attempting to trademark the word ‘Kimono’, Kim has been accused of disrespecting Japanese culture, erasing the cultural significance of the traditional dress, which represents beauty and elegance in Japan - typically worn for special occasions.
‘We wear kimonos to celebrate health, growth of children, engagements, marriages, graduations, at funerals,’ Yuka Ohishi told the BBC, ‘It's celebratory wear and passed on in families through the generations. [This] shapewear doesn't even resemble a kimono - she just chose a word that has Kim in it - there's no respect to what the garment actually means in our culture.’
Now, Kim is facing more backlash for having freed prisoner Alice Johnson in the campaign, who she famously helped get clemency after she was sentenced to life in prison for drug related charges.
This is not the first time Kardashian West has been embroiled in such a scandal – her brand seems to thrive on controversy. It’s why many have begun to consider these endless scandals as publicity stunts, because it seems as though there is a clear pattern to her controversies.
In April 2017, Kardashian West launched her new collection for Kimoji, choosing an emoji of her as the Virgin Mary for her marketing campaign. She posted the emoji on Twitter, with just a website link, and received a lot of backlash from people suggesting she was blaspheming.
Later that year, she launched her most highly anticipated make-up product – her cream contour sticks for KKW Beauty. The product was launched with an image of Kardashian West, which showed her with darker skin. She was quickly accused of blackface. In response, she said the image was badly edited and taken in a dark lit room to look ‘moody’ and newly edited campaign images emerged just before the product launched.
In January 2018, she posted a picture of herself wearing braids, with the caption ‘Hi, can I get zero fucks please, thanks’, later referring to them as ‘Bo Dereck braids’ on Snapchat, referencing the American actor. She then received a lot of backlash for cultural appropriation, with various media outlets reporting on it. A few days later, she announced her new KKW Fragrance launch, and also began posting adverts for Yeezy Season 6.
In May of that same year, she posted an advert for the infamous Flat Tummy Company with a picture of herself licking an appetite-suppressing lollipop. Again, she received so much backlash for its toxic messaging that she eventually changed the caption to just a lollipop emoji, but the cancellation had already begun. What did she do in the days that followed? Announced the launch of her KKW highlighter palettes, and then a restock of her latest fragrance.
This year, she has already had one cultural appropriation controversy. Wearing a sacred Indian headpiece on Instagram with the caption ‘Sunday service vibes’, she posted the image the day before Keeping Up With The Kardashian’s was due to air. And less than a week later, her first solo Vogue cover was revealed – something she hailed as a moment she’s dreamed of ‘for so long’.
We could go on, but we would be here all day. What’s clear just from just these few examples is that there always happens to be an integral business launch just days after any of Kardashian West's bigger 'scandals'. It could be a coincidence, of course, but with how many times she has been accused of the same thing, it feels ridiculous to believe that she remains this clueless.
So, why does she do it? Has the idea that controversy breeds coins been so heavily embedded into her brain that she can’t ever rely on a product simply standing for itself? It’s clearly been a failsafe marketing tactic for her over the years, but surely the outstanding success of Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics that has -for the most part – been based on the merit of the product would instill some sense that actually, just making something really good will sell.