Supplemental Post 1: The Kardashian Infiltration of Eonline

It was bound to happen. One of us was bound to write about the Kardashians. Or the Jenners, or Kanye, or Lamar, or Scott, or Tyga, or any of the other personalities they have created and nurtured through calculated publicity methods. That’s why I’m writing about them and that’s why we talk about them. They know exactly what they’re doing and they’ve mastered the infiltration of celebrity culture at its new core—the Internet and social media.

I visit Eonline every day, as I will gladly admit. It provides me with all of my celebrity gossip in a one-stop shop and it’s even pretty funny and, at-times self-aware. As the Kardashians got their big break on the E! Show Keeping Up with the Kardashians, it’s obvious that this family would be their biggest resource to tap for content. Yet, it wasn’t until rather recently that I realized their brand has infiltrated every single corner of Eonline.

Simply taking a look at the site today reveals just how pervasive they have become. The Kardashians are under “News” with a story about Rob Kardashian getting his new girlfriend, Blac Chyna red roses for Valentine’s Day (what a concept!). They appear under “Photos” with pictures of Kim “rocking” blonde braids and her “post-baby body”. Under “Videos”, we find clips about Kanye West dissing Taylor Swift and Lamar Odom’s first outing since his health crisis at Kanye’s fashion show. A Jenner makes an appearance under “Style”, of course, as Kendall is referenced as an “It Girl” of New York Fashion Week. The big drop-down category, “E! Shows” had 24 clips from Keeping Up with the Kardashians, featuring everyone from Caitlyn Jenner to all the men in each Kardashian or Jenner woman’s life.

All of this wasn’t extremely surprising to me because the E! Brand is wisely aligning itself closely with the Kardashian Brand. What really astounded me is what happens whenever you click on a story that mentions at least one person in any way associated with the Kardashian Kore. Upon clicking on a story about Lamar Odom and Khloe Kardashian celebrating Valentine’s Day together, Eonline fills my screen with Khloe’s Instagram, a photo gallery of Lamar’s happy times on and off the court and four other galleries featuring the famous family. They add in the entire schedule of KUWTK for the week and “The Bible”, which features the absolute up-to-the-minute news on the family. Under this entire Kardashian area within the website, the Kardashians have their own Home, News, Photos and Videos categories.

I find this to be a testament to how much work each member must put in to simply maintain the constant flow of content necessary to sustain this attention. It means Kanye has to diss Taylor Swift yet again in his new album to cause an eruption of opinions from other celebs through social media. It means Kim has to go blonde and hold her coat just right to make sure everyone sees her “post-baby assets”. Kylie and Kendall have to wear red carpet attire to get frozen yogurt because every outing is a photo-shoot. It appears there is no going back for them now. They have a whole site to preserve and the only way for them to do so is by living their lives entirely exposed.