It’d be very difficult to neatly describe Tila Nguyen, or Tila Tequila – that’s the name which 2.2 million users in MySpace (and counting) call her. Tila Tequila is more of a brand than a show name, much like Paris Hilton or Andy Warhol. And just like them, Tila has mastered the art of becoming famous through branding, although through an entirely different medium. Who would’ve guessed that she’d get this far with legions of virtual friends, and in a social networking site which only recently sprung up from the burst bubble?
Self-promotion is the key to her success, and she does a very good job of it. Before her MySpace fame, she’s been into a lot of odd stints, posing for Playboy.com and car magazine covers, joining into short-lived girl bands – but only in 2003 did her career as a celebrity took off. Back then, Friendster was the in thing, and she was the first to see its expediency. She joined the site but was kicked off five times for her ‘aggressive’ personality. MySpace was a veritable ghost town, and she moved to it like a pioneer braving the badlands. Tila Nguyen found a homestead and emailed fifty thousand people en masse, all of which came over within twenty-four hours. Almost everybody knows the rest of her story.
It’s ironic to think that a networking site which is meant to foster meaningful relationships (in a virtual sense) has been used as a machine for mass marketing, a classic Frankenstein monster spawned out of good intentions. Before Tila Tequila, most of the friends in your MySpace account were users you really knew; there were the beginnings of a popularity contest starting up, sure, but not on this scale. After Tila, the popularity race was on – but you could hardly dethrone the queen, what with 5,000 new friends signing up for her every day.
She capitalized on the opportunity by branding herself in true celebrity fashion, taking advantage of the tools of web 2.0 in ways which would shame MBA degree holders. She sold posters, pocket calendars, street apparel – she posed for the cover of British Maxim, and has debuted as a musical artist by releasing a single online (it received twenty thousand hits within three days). She scored a cameo role in the latest Adam Sandler flick; and of course, you couldn’t disregard her show deal with MTV. In “A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila”, 32 people from both genders vie for her affections – that’s right, even women has a shot at love. Tila has only recently confessed that she was bisexual (using the term like a true cosmopolite), and assumes the image of a girly girl who can be a rough tomboy whenever she wants to.
You couldn’t put her down even if you wanted to. With hits at iTunes and a budding movie career, who knows what she’ll conquer next? ‘The Sims with Tila Tequila’? A bisexual MMORPG? Nobody knew that being a commercial sellout can be this lucrative.
it’s all about the marketing…
Comment by patrick — July 1, 2008 @ 12:13 pm