“OMG, It’s Kim On Our Cover.”
Yes, those six silly words—accompanied by an eye-catching image of uber-entrepreneur Kim Kardashian—will grace this week’s cover of Adweek. The feature is pegged to Kardashian’s outrageously successful app, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, which raked in $74 million last year, and is projected to make an estimated $200 million this year (Kim gets 45 percent of all revenues), her self-effacing T-Mobile commercial during this year’s Super Bowl, and the E! reality series Keeping Up with the Kardashians, which was recently re-signed to a reported 4-year, $100 million deal.
Kim, Adweek gushingly writes, has “entered that rare pantheon of mononymous celebrities” like “Madonna and Oprah, Pele and Plato.”
The main thrust of the piece focuses on Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, the addictive Glu Mobile app that launched last summer. According to Adweek, the game has collected 28 million downloads and 11 billion minutes of playing time—and has even led to embarrassing social media moments involving government employees.
Kim says that Glu Mobile approached her about the app just after she give birth to North West, and she brought the idea to her husband, Kanye West, who immediately green-lit it. “Oh my God, you have to do a video game? It's so cool,” Kanye told her.
Coincidentally, Kim was traveling to Mexico the day of the launch and one of the activities in the app, where you literally play as avatar Kim, is a Mexico vacation. Now, users actually live vicariously through Kim in the game, mimicking her real-life vacations. “Once I started posting pictures through Instagram that I was in Mexico, everyone was playing along [and saying], ‘I just updated my game, and I'm in Mexico with you,’” Kim said. “They would literally get a bikini like the one I had Instagrammed in a photo.”
She added, “People thought we were doing that on purpose and that it was planned, and it wasn't. We realized that it worked so well because we are in such good communication—myself and the Glu team—to make updates in real time. I try to tell them as far in advance of when I know I have a trip planned, and we try to get as many lifelike things that I'm actually doing to really happen in the game so you can play along with my real life.”
The “mononymous” celebrity also touched on her upcoming book of selfies out this spring, which opens with “my first selfie in 1984” to the present. Kim also offers an explanation of sorts as to why she's addicted to taking (and sharing) selfies.
Behold:
“So many people think that taking so many selfies is just ridiculous. For me, what's so funny is I love taking pictures and posting them on social media for memories. I genuinely love the glam of life and hair and makeup and all of that, so I love just sharing my life with people—that's who I've been. I live my life on a reality show. But sometimes people take it very seriously, or they think it's ridiculous. I'm kind of letting them know, yes, it is ridiculous, but it's all fun. I can look at a photo on social media and see a picture and know exactly where I was by the outfit I had on or who I was with. I take it more as a fun, emotional scrapbook that I love to look back on.”
It's no James Franco-penned New York Times essay, but there you have it.