Overpricing of Celebrity Goods

We all have our celebrities that we idolize. For me, it’s Florence Pugh and Taylor Swift. For others, it’s Harry Styles or Tom Holland. The common denominator between these celebrities is merchandise for their certain job. Most celebrities have merchandise that they sell, usually at a higher price than the average for that item would be. An example of this would be Harry Styles’ company Pleasing. Nail polish from Pleasing costs $20 per bottle, while a normal bottle of good quality polish would at most cost only half that. This overpricing is only accepted because of the name brand and the fact that it is made by a celebrity. If the nail polish was just made by an average person, it would have to be much cheaper to be bought at a regular store like Target.
This allowance of overpricing by celebrities only encourages this. While I do think they should be able to make what money they need, merchandise should not be their main source of income, and in most cases it isn’t. For smaller celebrities, the merch may be their biggest source of income, which would make the higher prices more reasonable. Bands make 10 to 35 percent of their concert income from merch. Still, the exploitation of fans is not right. We idolize these people, and pay hundreds of dollars for their merch. The high prices of these products is not necessary, especially with the amount of money they are making already. The merch may put extra money in their pocket, but I think their art should be their main income. For example, Taylor Swift gets paid a million dollars per show, much more than anyone gets in an entire year of work. Meanwhile, Tom Holland gets paid around $4 to $5 million per movie, and $10 million for “No Way Home.”
Now, I can understand wanting to make money and keep it flowing. I also understand that there are expenses that celebrities have to make that might cut their salaries down by quite a bit. However, $20 for a bottle of nail polish is a little ridiculous. There is not much nail polish in the bottles, so it is a lot of money for little product. Now this brings up the question of higher end brands charging more for items as well. This is also ridiculous. However I can see better materials and higher manufacturing standards being used. The celebrity items don’t have much differing ingredients, namely Pleasing.
However, many of these products are more sustainable and donate to charities, which would up the price. The same thing happens with clothing that has logos on it. Taylor Swift has t-shirts that cost up to $64. I have nothing against these celebrities—I love Taylor Swift and everything about her—but the overpricing of common items is becoming an epidemic among fans. Many celebrities don’t handle their pricing, and it is their management or marketing teams. But, those teams are under the employment of these celebrities, so it would make sense for them to have some control over these prices. A lot of them have young fan bases, who don’t have this money but are still very naive in spending it. Singers main source of income may be their merchandise, as their streaming revenue has become lower than ever, but this still does not excuse the exploitation of fans. Signed products or high value products may have more worth than the average product, but the lack thereof causes overpricing in the celebrity merchandise. The celebrities who are overpricing need to lower their prices, or justify the higher prices with better materials. Overpricing, no matter how famous it is, is exploitation of loyal fans.