Just this Spring Festival, Kim Kardashian visited Harvard Business School as a guest speaker.
Kim posted on Instagram, saying she attended an HBS course called Moving Beyond DTC as a guest speaker, sharing the business case of her self-founded lingerie brand Skims, and thanking the Harvard professor for letting her complete her 'bucket list' #BucketListDream.
She also shared several beautiful photos taken in front of Harvard Business School.
Kim's fans went wild:
Kim, you can do anything!
Oh my god, so proud of you!
Kim, stay on fire!
The suit looks gorgeous 😍
Harvard's star-chasers also went crazy.
A Harvard undergraduate said: I really wanted to see Kardashian! I woke up this morning and put on a full face of makeup because I was going to meet my idol 🤩
Another Harvard student said: I waited in the rain for a full 45 minutes, just standing in line to see this big star! Oh my god, unbelievable—I woke up and actually saw Kardashian in person!
However, many netizens were like:
Doesn't Harvard Business School have anyone else to give a talk? ❓
The case outline:
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Born as a rich second-generation
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Wealthy parents make you soar
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Always had money, always felt good
One wonders if these netizens would faint again upon seeing the recently revealed news that fake socialite fraudster Anna Delvey is also set to speak at Harvard Business School...
Back to our Kim, she remained unfazed by the mockery and cynicism from netizens, continuing to post on Twitter: I'm so proud of Skims! It's actually become a course at HBS, oh my god!!!
Skims is the lingerie brand founded by Kim herself, with a look like this 👇
Netizen replies:
First of all, this is not a course, it's just a case study 😅
Secondly, is this thing really worth a semester of study for a Harvard student? ❓
As the original internet celebrity, Kim has completely mastered the code of online traffic: hate all you want, the traffic still goes to me 😊
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Kardashian's Road to Riches
You could say Kim was very aspirational. In her younger days, although she hung out with top socialite Paris Hilton, in this frenemy friendship, Kim was more like a little sidekick to the heiress.
She not only had to help Hilton organize her closet, but if Hilton told her to shut up, she could only immediately say sorry.
But this period of running around after Hilton also taught Kim a lot about getting rich.
First she broke through by creating hype, and then with the reality show 'Keeping Up with the Kardashians,' the Kardashian family really blew up.
After all, the whole family is full of drama, with all sorts of fights every day, and the audience loves watching it 😅
How popular is Kim now? As a true top-tier influencer with 340 million followers, her Instagram followers outnumber the entire US population.
She launched K.MOJI emojis themed after herself, and they were so popular that the App Store crashed upon release:
She released the celebrity simulation game 'Kim Kardashian: Hollywood,' which had tens of millions of downloads on Google Play:
Later, she successively launched her own cosmetics, lingerie, and perfume brands, all selling like hotcakes.
Take the Skims brand she spoke about at Harvard: in just three years since its founding, it reached a market value of 3.2 billion US dollars—you have to admit, Kim has some business talent.
So why did netizens react so strongly? Is Kim undeserving, or are others just being jealous haters? 🐔
A Harvard alum on Xiaohongshu put it quite pertinently: Everyone comes to Harvard to gold-plate their resume, and celebrities are no exception. The further removed people are from 'elite education,' the more they tend to make a big deal out of 'I'm giving a lecture/attending a class at Harvard.'
Indeed, big shots generally don't make a fuss about speaking at Harvard, but Kim, after all, doesn't have much formal education, so let's cut her some slack.
Between the professor and the celebrity, it's more like a business collaboration. An HBS professor posted on LinkedIn: 'I did not meet Kardashian at HBS,' and the post went viral, and the professor's class became fully enrolled 😂
Ultimately, who doesn't love online traffic? Whether bashing or praising Kim, a whole batch of bloggers make a living off her.
And Kim is indeed a successful businesswoman. Look at Hilton, who treated her like a sidekick: she loses money on everything she does and has now completely flopped.
Not every celebrity or influencer can run a successful business, so let's not be too harsh.
Celebrities + Prestigious Schools = Easy Backlash?
Not long ago, Zhang Yixing (Lay Zhang) giving a speech at Harvard Business School was widely mocked.
Netizens commented:
He read from a script the whole time—clearly underprepared.
The content was too vapid; are you sure this was for students at a top university?
The music and dance were way too Korean, with no Chinese elements at all.
...
The old embarrassing story of a chance encounter in a Shanghai Harvard classroom was also brought up again.
It's a good thing for celebrities to love learning and strive for progress, but maybe people have been put off by celebrities forcefully crafting an 'academic overachiever' image.
For example, Fan Weiqi, who consistently pushed the 'Harvard girl' persona, muddled through in the pre-internet era while fans exaggerated to the skies.
When the internet developed, it turned out to be Harvard Extension School. The school itself wasn't much maligned; netizens targeted Fan Weiqi more for her stubbornly fabricated 'Harvard scholarly' persona.
Probably due to the shadows cast by celebrities who love to adopt an academic persona, netizens' first reaction now is to 'debunk academic fraud.'
For instance, when Gu Ailing posted her Stanford final straight-A transcript, it sparked heated discussion across the internet.
Although most netizens said 'Wow, so envious, just as expected of you,' there were quite a few skeptical voices:
What's so great about a perfect Stanford GPA?
A 4.0 GPA? Isn't the maximum 4.3?
After looking, they're all easy-A classes.
Netizens argued endlessly, and in the end, the person herself had to step in and explain:
In other words, let's not be too absurd, scrutinizing celebrities' lives under a microscope. Whoever it is, as long as they love learning and strive for improvement, they deserve to be congratulated.
For instance, Kobayashi Sayaka, the real-life inspiration behind the popular Japanese movie 'Flying Colors' ('Biri Gyaru'), received a Columbia University offer last year. Attending an Ivy League school at 34 is the stuff of fiery Japanese anime.
In fact, celebrities and prestigious schools have a win-win relationship. Celebrities bring their own online traffic, and universities need the celebrity effect to boost their own popularity, which also attracts more students.
From Hillary Clinton becoming a Columbia University professor, to former British Prime Minister David Cameron accepting a teaching post at NYU, Daniel Wu as a guest speaker at Parsons, Taylor Swift being awarded an honorary doctorate in fine arts from NYU, Matthew McConaughey serving as a professor at UT Austin, to Angelina Jolie once serving as a visiting professor at LSE...
Apart from a few academic powerhouses, most celebrities and influencers bring more in the way of traffic and buzz to the school. Titles like 'visiting professor' or 'honorary doctorate' are understood by everyone for what they are; there's no need to take them too seriously.
Sometimes, the hostility online is just too strong. As an average international student, it's best to just watch. If you happen to take a class with a celebrity, casually posting on social media is also a way to be low-key and cool about it.
