Who's Keith Stone?

So, I went down to Indiana University this past weekend for their Little 500 race.  For a short background, the IU is famous for this bike race as it's the largest collegiate bike race in the US.  Riders from all of the sororities and fraternities compete for the title by completing 500 vigorous laps around a race track, hence the name Little 500 (based off of the much larger Indy 500).  Friday night my buddies and I went into a bar called Nick's.  This place is famous for their drinking game 'sink the biz' as well as their fresh pizzas.  After a few games into sink the biz (I was losing), the crowd in the bar started getting pretty rowdy and causing some commotion behind me.  I looked back to see groups of people cheering and circling around someone.  From the distance I saw his big belly, long hair, classic trucker hat and vintage blue jacket completing his truck-driver looking style. When I noticed people taking pictures of him as he held a case of Key Stone beer in the air, I asked the guys next to me who he was.  I was totally and utterly clueless.  He didn't look or sound familiar and I was taken aback by the amount of celebrity-style attention he was receiving.  The guy I asked turned to me and yelled, "Bro, that's Keith Stone!  You know, the guy from the Key Stone commercials?".  I'd never even seen the commercials and was still clueless, yet I felt the need to get a picture with him.  After snapping some memories with a digital camera, it amazed me how much attention he was receiving.  This guy was fat, ugly, and wearing pretty gross looking clothes and yet people were throwing themselves onto him.  Keith Stone is not a famous athlete, actor, or famous anything!  He's in a couple of 'shitty' beer commercials.  Why does he get treated like a star?

After missing class due to an important job interview this morning, my classmates updated me on the activities of the day.  Apparently, the class watched the first episodes of the Kardashian show.  Why are the Kardashian's famous?  Obviously their fame started with the OJ Simpson trial as Mr. Kardashian was his defense attorney, but why does that make his family famous?  Kim Kardashian was later busted with the "accidental" release of a sex tape, which in all honesty wasn't worth the time. Now, the show is on its seventh season and seems to be going stronger than ever.  It's made the Kardashian family so famous that they now have clothing lines, perfume lines, dolls, and pretty soon I wouldn't be surprised if Kim ended up on the next dollar bill.  They're so famous it's unbelievable and all for nothing, it seems like.  So, all someone needs to do is release a sex tape and know or be related to someone famous to become famous themselves?  Absolutely.

In relating these two examples, the underlying question is what does it truly take to reach star status?  My answer: practically nothing.  But taking things a step further, why is it so difficult to hit this level of stardom, then?  I'm pretty positive if I released a sex tape, I would not be any more famous than the millions of people uploading their home videos to underground porn websites.  Chances are I would walk into a bar post sex tape release and not a single person would know who I am, although the creepy 50 year old virgin sitting in the corner may recognize me unfortunately.  In the end of things, I don't know what it takes to become famous.  Apparently promoting bad beer and defending a potential murderer is the place to start, though.  After all of the media studies classes I've taken throughout my college career, I am still speechless at the things our society values.  Moral of the story: if you can get enough attention from society at large, your chances of becoming famous and being followed by paparazzi as you shop down Rodeo drive dramatically increase.  I still don't care who Keith Stone is and I'm yet to watch a full Keeping Up with the Kardashians episode.  I will never understand celebrity culture and to be honest, I don't think anyone truly does.  These classes have really just helped me come to the conclusion that star status is inexplicable yet THE most desirable.  I just hope the celebrities start to get smarter..

Tom P.