Fame & Celebrity Today Much Easier Through Internet Branding

When I got home last night I grabbed the remote and turned on a cable news program. I was busy in the kitchen and couldn't see the screen but I heard a voice that I remembered always sent chills down my spine. I walked into the living room and sure enough, staring me in the face, swastika on forehead, cigarette in hand, was Charles Manson further "branding himself". "Egad", I thought, "Andy Warhol promised 15 minutes and this jerk's had 50 years!"

I did a double-take. I shouldn't have been so surprised that the media had given him yet another Andy Warhol 15 minutes; I worked in the media for nearly two decades before saying "enough is enough" as I saw it going in a direction in which valuable camera-time was being handed over to the infamous, rather than the famous; and often the famous had worked hard and been productive all their lives to get where they were. In other words, sensationalism was winning out over positive broadcasting. I am not saying stories of such notorious characters should not be mentioned or remembered. It is important to remember the Holocaust. It is important to remember Hilter; and for obvious reasons. It serves the educational process. Media can have a powerful effect on teaching a government, a citizenry, an entire nation on how not to repeat the errors of the past.

So I said to myself, "Okay, maybe it is time for Charlie to show his mug to remind us what we don't want to be. The problem I had with the program was he was given an entire hour of nothing but his predictable rambling. He was having a blast. The media was showing the world, "Look, doing something crazy like brainwash people into killing other people, and you two, a half century later, can still be a big celebrity." And that is exactly what was happening.

Manson was allegedly driven by fame. Did you know he (and Steven Stills) both tried out for the 60's band "The Monkees" when they were forming?

I don't think that is what Andy Warhol had in mind with his "15 minutes of fame" theory.

Do you want your 15 minutes? Do you want fame? Freud said something drives everyone. Maybe it is not fame. Maybe it is money. Maybe it is doing good in the world. Maybe it is having money and doing good in the world with it. Whatever it is, chances are, you are willing to work for it.

As a cartoonist and writer, I have had way more than my 15 minutes, and I am grateful for it. I have been able to help other people, animals, and environmental causes, and do things I never dreamed I could do.

What were the steps?

Have a dream. A dream can't come true unless there is a dream with which to begin.

Take action on that dream. Write it down. Make a plan. Seek out the right people to help you make it happen. Use the Internet to accelerate that dream. Andy Warhol and his friends Marilyn Monroe and so many others did not have the luxury of the Internet. Norma Jean never had a blog and Andy did no social networking. You can. You can learn article marketing. Do it. Don't stop with just a few articles. Find the top Ezines and stay at it.

Find a product or service with which you want to be involved, offer it better, faster, more affordable, more unique, and every other angle to make a customer your customer (or fan) instead of someone else's. It is really that simple.