The Beckhams... again

[twittertwit]

I would have expected the Beckhams to have learnt their lesson about using charitable causes for shameless self-promotion after the leaked UNICEF emails earlier in the year, but evidently nothing has changed

I was sickened to see young 'photographer' Brooklyn Beckham using the Grenfell catastrophe to promote his new book. These people are quite literally shameless

www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4639592/Brooklyn-Beckham-holding-art-exhibition-Grenfell.html

[Scrumpernickel]

Victoria Beckham isn't working class! Her parents are self made millionaires so she had a pretty comfy upbringing.

[TheAntiBoop]

I haven't seen a cricketer or rugby player with the profile the beckhams have

I admire them for building their brand but I would admire them more if they had left their kids out of it until they'd reached 16/18

A lot of celeb kids have very private upbringings and then enter the scene once they get to 16/18 so it is perfectly possible. There's even those who choose not to try the celeb route but it must seem very easy and seductive when you are a teenager

[Nettletheelf]

I'm struggling to understand the 'sour grapes' thing too, and the suggestions that the OP is somehow 'jealous' of Brooklyn Beckham.

Expressing the quite reasonable view that the Beckhams' linking this photographic exhibition to the Grenfell fire is distasteful and opportunistic does not make the people expressing that view 'jealous'. It means that they find the Beckhams' actions rather studied and cynical. I don't think that anybody expressing that view on this thread wishes that they were Brooklyn Beckham, or envies his success (which he hasn't had, let's face it).

I'm not buying the argument that the Beckhams 'using their fame' will encourage more people to donate, either. I don't think that the terrible tragedy at Grenfell tower lacks publicity, and it rather smacks of hubris to think that the hoi polloi wouldn't react unless shown how to be charitable by the Beckham family. It rather insults us, doesn't it?

If it's not clear what 'sour grapes' means, it comes from one of Aesop's fables. It means belittling something that you would otherwise have wanted but now can't have. Here is an example:

Giles Deacon and Jonathan Saunders are both British fashion designers. Both trained for years at prestigious London fashion schools. Giles Deacon made Pippa Middleton's wedding dress. Jonathan Saunders has dressed a number of celebrities. Both of them are talented and creative. Both have closed their ready to wear businesses in the last couple of years.

Both of those designers might look at Victoria Beckham, untrained, with no fashion design skills (she couldn't design a pattern and cut out a dress, for example, let alone stitch one) and think, why is she running a successful fashion house and holding herself out as a designer when she plainly isn't doing any of the designing because she doesn't know how? They might look at awards she wins for her ready to wear line, or her sales, or publicity she garners, and think, well, I wouldn't want that anyway because it's become a debased currency if people with no design training can pretend to be designers.

That might be called 'sour grapes' (although frankly I'd understand why they felt that way).

[Gazelda]

I agree he has had huge advantage because of his parents' connections. And he's had a wonderful,time growing up, with experiences most of us never dream of.
But he also has to work out where he fits into the world, just like other teens. But with the whole of MN the world judging him.
Poor lad. I don't envy teens these days, including Brooklyn.
He's done a good thing. No need to snipe.

[MycatsaPirate]

YANBU!

Firstly, if you actually read the article, it says that two of the photos have been bought by the auction house for 'big money' and the rest of the photos will now be sold and the profits from them going to Grenfell. So not the big money then? Just the 22 lesser photos.

And the Beckhams seriously piss me off. They are like the Kardashians these days.

Brooklyn has been touted as a footballer and now a photographer. He only got a very expensive camera when he picked it as a subject for exams (who even knew that photography was an option?). Since then he's been handed the Burberry gig and now he has been offered this exhibition at Christies - he said he didn't go looking for this, it was offered to him. I wonder which one of his parents organised it for him?

He really doesn't seem to have any skills or motivation to do anything at all. I wish he'd just go and get an actual job and stop being promoted as the next big thing in football/photography/insert random stuff.

[TizzyDongue]

I think the issue here is that Brooklyn Beckham is not an established photographer yet. He's trying to launch a career by releasing this book.

Yes maybe he is (well probably is seeing the book itself isn't anything to do with charity).

The point a lot of people have made is the two example photographs aren't good (they are in fact not even ok, they bad), add to that the comments in the book are akin to 'Peter and Jane' level Instagram comments you do not have a career launching book.

Lots of people would like thuer chosen career to be a photographer. It's hard to get a book publushed even when you are talented. So you can only deduced that this book, that shows no inkling of talent, has been published merely because of who he is; most likely at the loss of a Not-a-Celebrity with actual talent photographer.

Not sour grapes to say the photographs are poor, it's also not sour grapes to think he shouldn't be classed as a photographer just because he thinks he is.

[nina2b]

Today 13:57 RoseTico

Shit - he's gone and published the kind of pictures most of us would delete off our phones? That elephant one! grin

Teehee.

[nina2b]

Today 14:06 waitforitfdear

Sad not dad

?!?!?

[MommaGee]

Leaving the charity stuff behind, the issue isn't that a 17 yo kid got a helping hand from Mom and Dad or that a publisher saw a chance at a quick profit, its that people will actually buy it just because of who it is. If we weren't so obsessed will celebrity there picture would just be tacked up on hi s wall at home. They've clearly state their target audience is the teenagers who follow him so I doubt they'd publish another random teen in his place or a decent photographer

[SuburbanRhonda]

mommagee

Jodie Marsh got A*/A grades in her GCSEs. She doesn't reveal what grades she got in her A levels.

[cowgirlsareforever]

There must be teenagers out there with a passion and talent for photography who are looking at those pictures and thinking what the fuck. I wouldn't blame any of them for feeling hard done by.

[TheHiphopopotamus]

David and Victoria work their socks off for their lifestyle, they weren't born to it.

And good for them. However, every opportunity is a business opportunity also, which is why BB visiting Grenfell under the guise of 'charity' leaves a sour taste in the mouth. Why all the security? He's a nobody and I doubt very much he would have been recognised otherwise.

And he's as much a 'photographer' as his mother is a 'designer' (as nettle so eloquently explained above). Don't make me bloody laugh (although having seen some examples from his book, I can't really help it 😏).

[MommaGee]

SuburbanRhonda my bad. Found the link and re read it. I stand corrected. 3 A Levels not 3 A A Levels

[dataandspot]

Mommagee

I don't understand the point you were making?

[Sallystyle]

All I know is that he is a bad photographer.

Blurry, underexposed, poor light... it's pretty poor.

My photography is better but no one would buy a book from me

[Sallystyle]

He is talking about it being difficult to get the photo using the light like that. It is really hard to photograph into sunlight to get a shadow image like that. People are just showing their own ignorance.

I am not ignorant about photography at all. He really is poor at what he does.

[ssd]

I wish I had his money talent

[TheHiphopopotamus]

U2 I agree. I have an inkling that no one will be buying the book because he's an amazing photographer, though. I've seen some of the other photos and it's probably more interesting as a peek into the lifestyle of a very rich and famous family.

If he really wanted to be a photographer, perhaps he could have released his photos on Instagram for free and kept on honing his skills behind the scenes, like a lot of brilliant photographers I've come across. But nope. He's a Beckham, after all. And let's not forget, he's already had a pop at being a footballer and model. Not that I can blame BB for that, but D and V are the epitome of pushy parents. Nothing matters, except the brand, but that book is just ripe for pisstaking. I can't believe they'd want to expose him to that, tbh.

[MommaGee]

DataandSpot which one? Jodie Marsh or people buying crap cost a famous person bought it?
If the latter - lots of kids get a hekpojg hand into work or careers by well placed parents. They're entitled to do what they want to help him do stuff he likes. However if people weren't so "celeb" obsessed no one would buy the book and the publishers would never think to produce it.
As for him being published instead of someone with talent - they clearly state they published it for the teenage market. I doubt many proffesional photographers would meet that target - its not a coffee table book its a teenagers shelf book. Wow look he's so fit and he took these photos, one day ill marry him swoon!

[Sallystyle]

Nothing matters, except the brand, but that book is just ripe for pisstaking. I can't believe they'd want to expose him to that, tbh.

Nope, it would be like letting my 8 year old play her violin on Britain's Got Talent.

[waitforitfdear]

scrumpernickle

Her mother was a hairdresser and her dad was an engineer. She was nicknamed posh as her dad had an old rolls Royce.

They were not in any way millionaires

I fought he or they give a shiny shite what mumsnetters think of them and they appear a nice close abs happy family with lots of dosh and good looks.

Of course some posters hate them and take the piss. That's precisely why.

I expect some posters would be a lot happier if they had divorced after his affair and that at least one of their kids was a drug addled teenage mess.

Makes people feel better about their own lives. Now that is sad.

[WinnieTheMe]

If he'd gone out to help anonymously, he'd probably have raised less money. This way he'll make more money directly, but seeing him doing something is likely to encourage others to give too. There have been studies done on this - 'giving quietly and privately' to charity is actually really counter productive. Being open about charitable giving encourages others and creates a kind of positive domino effect.

He's doing a good thing.

[Scrumpernickel]

waitforitfdear not an old Rolls Royce, oh the hardship! She had a perfectly comfortable childhood growing up in this house. You can still be a fan and admit her parents weren't exactly living hand to mouth working on whelk stall.

[MommaGee]

I'd assume her parents were working class, worked hard and done well for themselves meaning the girls were brought up middle class. Does it still matter in this day and age though?

[Scrumpernickel]

And apparently her dad wasn't just an engineer he and his wife 'founded an electronics wholesale business'. Kerching.

I would say David had a traditionally working class upbringing.