Celebrities as honorary tech executives making a comeback

Several years ago, there was a short-lived trend toward tech companies giving celebrity spokespeople executive titles. It was derided as a marketing ploy and eventually died off. But now it’s back.
At CES 2018, Chinese electronics firm Huawei (pronounced wow-way) announced that actress Gal Gadot is its “chief experience officer.”
“In this new role, Ms. Gadot will help shape the company’s brand experiences and play an active role in listening to and providing ongoing ideas to inform how Huawei will bring the best experiences to its consumers,” Huawei said in a press release. What a bunch of mumbo jumbo.
TechCrunch summed it up well in its coverage of the announcement.
“These sorts of titles are often little more than ceremonial, of course, and Gadot’s involvement with the company could ultimately amount to simply appearing in ads and posting her Huawei-related experiences on social media,” TechCrunch writer Brian Heater said.
Gadot earlier this month was also named global ambassador for Revlon’s Live Boldly campaign.
Her appointment at Huawei follows several other celebrities getting roles at tech companies in recent months.
In October, British music tech startup Roli named producer, songwriter and performer Pharrell Williams as its chief creative officer. Williams also will invest and become a co-owner of Roli, Business Insider reported.
In November, Verizon’s Oath, the company formed from AOL and Yahoo, announced a board of advisers filled with famous athletes and models.
Professional tennis player Serena Williams is chairing the board. Other board members include Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, singer Ciara, rapper Chuck D and supermodel Karlie Kloss, according to Fierce Cable.
Last year, Wired published an article on the last wave of celebrities as tech executives. (See “The Brief, Bumbling Tech Careers of Alicia Keys, Lady Gaga, and Gwen Stefani.”)
In 2013, mobile phone maker BlackBerry named singer Alicia Keys its global creative officer.
“The move was part of a short-lived trend in which legacy tech businesses struggling for reputational bling named celebrities as creative directors,” Wired writer Jessi Hempel noted. “In 2005, HP brought Gwen Stefani on as a creative director. In 2010, Lady Gaga landed the job of creative director at Polaroid. In 2011, Will.i.am was the director of creative innovation at Intel. In 2012, Microsoft brought on Jessica Alba as creative director to promote its Windows Phone 8. These roles were all touted as far more involved than the mere celebrity pitchman. The artists promised, to varying degrees, to dive into the business.”
None of those business arrangements amounted to more than advertising and marketing deals.
The same is likely true for the current bunch of celebrity tech executives.

Photos: Actress Gal Gadot pitching Huawei smartphones.