When a celebrity dies and other minor celebrities post their tenuous link to them

[Bulbstarglitterball]

I’m not quite sure how to put that into a sentence but today my Instagram is full of people posting tributes to Vivienne Westwood (rightly so because she was an incredible woman) but somehow managing to make the post all about them. It happens a lot whenever anyone of note dies and I find it really irritating.

One particular influencer has posted a picture of herself in various different dresses and nothing actually on VW. I just find it all really distasteful and attention seeking.

So AIBU in finding the whole thing annoying or is it just me being annoyed by nothing.

I think saw the post you are referring to and thought the same thing - it was all about her really. A bit clumsy perhaps - maybe she meant it to show the influence VW had on her life through fashion. The photos were all of her taken from the same angle too, which that influencer does now on a daily basis with all her photos, which is getting a bit boring now….

It annoys me. A dear friend of mine died yesterday. He was a beautiful, funny kind soul but we knew him, loved him and it's different.
I wish the likes of Jack Monroe would shut up. Me me me all the time.

Yes I think you’re right, I do actually like her but this felt off. But by no means the only one. There are some brilliant tributes to VW and it’s not specifically about her today (or Pele RIP) it’s just always the way when someone prominent dies, someone comes and manages to make it about them.

I know exactly who you are talking about here

So sorry for your loss. 🌺

I honestly find the whole "tributes pour in" thing very annoying, and the tenuous " I met this person once"
In VW case "I wore one of her designs 25 years ago" with the obligatory picture.

How many of these devastated people outpouring their grief actually spent time with the deceased, knew them, enjoyed their company?

But you see it when normal people die aswell, suddenly everyone comes crawling out the woodwork saying how much they loved that person. People's reactions to death is bizarre.

The absolute worst for this though was when Sean Locke died and Jason Manford posted a screenshot of a message he had sent Sean a few weeks before to show everyone what good friends they were and was a Great Guy Manford is. Prick.

Yes. Its just another way to be attention seeking. Unfortunately i know someone like this in real life, who posts gushing fb tributes to people she vaguely knows who have died. It reads like they were close friends when in real like they were acquaintances or had a tenuous link at best..

Is this grief vampirism? I don't know why breakfast telly needed to show us Victoria Beckham's tribute to VW, its not about her!

YABU to pay any attention to ‘influencers’.

Who is the influencer?

I've only seen a couple of posts on Facebook and they were respectful 1 was on an NHS demo with Ralph little and he didn't make it about him. I do think instagram is all about "influncers" though And of course some of them are going to be about them !

Urghh I hate grief tourists.

Grief tourism- making it all about them. Horribly distasteful.

I think people are talking about Helen Thorn from Scummy Mummies.

She's used it to plug her book as well. Tacky and grim.

I found that really distasteful too. A private message to a friend shouldn't be leveraged for clout on social media.

I saw the Jack Monroe post. It made me snort tea out of my nose laughing.

May I recommend I love susie too if you want a handle on the narcisstic morons that hover around TV and influencing etc. Billie Piper has covered it off beautifully - I work in media and it's incredibly accurate. What you see is pure manipulation

really want to watch this but I don’t have Sky.

I like the term
'grief-jacking'. It's hijacking someone else's grief to somehow make it all about you. I see it a lot, particularly on Twitter. It's a bit nauseating and in a way distracts from the people who are genuinely grieving; the children/relatives and close friends.

By all means, write a tribute/condolences but don't use it as a vehicle to make yourself sound famous because you once hung out with a more famous person.

If you follow an ‘influencer’ you deserve what you get. Being ‘relevant’ and attention-seeking is part of the job description.

But yes as a general point, people making anyone’s death all about them is completely cringeworthy.

Agreed. There are some beautiful tributes and anecdotes on both Twitter and Instagram from people who worked with her who have still managed to make it about her rather than them.

I saw Helen Thorne's post too and thought that there were so many better ways to honour such an influential designer and creator.

Sure. I’m going to delete Instagram for January (much more of an unhealthy addition than alcohol in my case!)