The rich get richer, the famous get even more famous. The history of celebrity is longer than we think, and celebrity is much more embedded into our institutions and psychology than we care to admit. From early childhood we mirror and mimic our caregivers, in adulthood we mirror and mimic celebrity. It is important that we understand celebrity in modern society so we can engage with it more appropriately, writes Robert van Krieken.

If you’ve ever wondered why humanitarian campaigns are so often fronted by a celebrity like Angelina Jolie or David Beckham, rather than an explanation of the worthiness of the cause, it was explained well by former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Anan. In 2002 he told a group of celebrity advocates that putting their name to a message brings an issue to people’s attention in a powerful way, helping to break through ‘the barrier of indifference’.

The underlying logic of the celebrity production process had already been explained by the first US Vice-President and second President John Adams in the early eighteenth century. The ‘mighty secret’, wrote Adams, is that all the activities that generate celebrity are those that ‘attract more forcibly the attention of the world, and procure a better advancement in life’. Adams had put his finger on what is and always has been key to the celebrity production process: the generation and management of attention throughout society and culture. The history of celebrity has largely been about the different ways in which attention is shaped and directed as communications technology has developed over time.