How David and Victoria Beckham use social media and their own children to protect their brand at all costs
AT a lunch with a close pal of DAVID and VICTORIA BECKHAM, I learnt about how they plan to protect their lucrative brand in the midst of ongoing rumoured tensions between the pair.
The couple would use their massive social media following to share every intimate detail of family life for the world to see.
But there’s a much darker danger behind the Beckham’s sick bucket inducing daily Instagram reality show to their combined 77million followers.
They need to avoid exposing their young children to the cruel world of celebrity and social media for the most commercial of causes... Brand Beckham.
In reality, close friends believe this is a marriage struggling under the strain of Becks’ decision to spend part of the year working in Miami launching an unlikely US football club.
Not to mention his latest tattoo – an atrocity on his skull that shows some type of solar system (no idea why, either).
Fashion luvvie Victoria hates permanent inkings so much these days, she’s doing all she can to discreetly remove hers.
And Posh Spice was desperate for son Brooklyn to avoid going under the needle, only to be over-ruled by his dad.
Surely tatts all over his actual head is the moment we can truly say David has jumped the shark as some sort of great role model for young British lads?
OK, he was a decent footballer for a time – but to put him on a pedestal as a Godlike figure forever more whatever he does is ridiculous.
Let’s not forget how his wife nearly left him because of his close friendship with their nanny Rebecca Loos, who didn’t stay employed for long.
Then last year’s genuinely shocking Beckileaks emails revealed his nasty fury when long-running attempts to secure a knighthood backfired.
But that wasn’t all – they suggested one of Britain’s richest celebrities was slow to dip into his very deep pockets to support HIS OWN charity foundation.
Not to mention demanding charities pay for business class flights.
And there was his very unsavoury language towards Katherine Jenkins – remember the opera beauty previously publicly denied an affair with him – who in my opinion has done far more genuine work for good causes.
While his private communication should absolutely never have been leaked, what it unfortunately showed was a man who appeared to put his own personal interests ahead of anything else – if correct a stark contrast to his carefully constructed Instagram persona.
What this couple has realised is that they can drown out any negativity with constant videos of their children in private family moments.
It reached a new nadir this week on David’s birthday with a series of highly choreographed videos.
There was the one revealing six-year-old Harper’s message to her dad in his birthday card. Did 19 million people really need to read that?
As for the parading of Harper’s £4,500 Louis Vuitton wine case present for her dad, well that just shows a family totally out of touch from reality.
Next there was the somewhat underwhelming restaurant stunt where young celeb-for-no-reason-whatsoever Brooklyn ‘surprised’ his dad. Filmed from two different angles, of course.
Look, I get they’re parents who love their children more than anything. And that’s another reason why they keep their problems at bay as much as the brand.
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But but BUT what they should be protecting their kids from the fame bubble that is so debilitating to youngsters.
From Judy Garland to Justin Bieber, that’s been proven over the decades time and time again.
The definition of true happiness is when you don’t have anything to prove to anyone.
And if any youngster who looks up to Beckham sees that tattoo and is considering permanently destroying their skull, some advice from me: He is the one living on another planet.
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Dan's Dilemmas
Matt Cardle: “I’ve been booked to fly out to Europe for a show which I’ve just signed the contract for but I completely f***ed up and double booked myself with a friends wedding and they may have asked me to sing their first dance... What do I do?”
Matt, your pals will love you forever if you perform for their first dance. There’s plenty of time to crack Europe. But, saying that, if the newlyweds for some reason ignore the fact they have a genuine chart star in attendance and opt for their wedding DJ to play a recording of their favourite song, book a flight straight away and get out of there - nicking some vol-au-vents for the plane.