A few years ago, Kevin Jonas announced the birth of his daughter via a sponsored tweet. Since then, there’ve been several pee-stick announcements sponsored by pregnancy tests. Basically, there is no shame in the parental pimp game anymore.
Is sponsorship even tacky anymore? Is there any part of pregnancy or parenthood that we aren’t part of? It’s become so saturated that we’re completely immune to the non-story stories, “Ryan Gosling is the best dad ever!” “5 Reasons JT will be the best dad ever!” “Jennifer’s Hopelessly in Love with her Baby!” They don’t mean anything anymore, and with increasing avenues for celebrity parents to share their children (like social media), along with the increase in demand for “baby” anything, the stories get more threadbare.
But the grandparent pimp game? This is new territory. So Justin Timberlake had a baby (oh, and Jessica Biel as well). Justin’s mom, Lynn, announced the birth and name on her Facebook, and made a point to explain the lineage is pure Timberlake (as Duana pointed out). A proud grandparent? Lovely.
But also a grandma who needs a big push with her new venture. Per PEOPLE, Lynn has a “second job.” (Let’s just ignore that “grandma” isn’t a job as much as mom, sister, daughter, wife isn’t a job. A job is a vocation you get paid for.) Anyway, Lynn is now an independent brand partner for Nerium, a skin care line. Lynn needs to sell, and what is the guaranteed sell? BABIES! And how does Grandma position her new venture? The same way any celebrity mom who has something to sell, with the key pillars of celebrity pimping: health, youthfulness, relatability, connections, and priorities.
She focuses on how “young” she looks for a grandma. She’s mentions her love of authenticity, and that she is just the kind of person who has to share all of her great finds. So it’s altruistic skin care. Obviously, you call on your famous friends and family: Jessica’s mom and of her proud son.
And the cornerstone of the parent pimp message: this is a side job that allows me to focus my time on what I really care about - my grandson.
It’s audacious, to regular people, the idea of pushing a skin care line to coincide with the birth of your grandson, but I guess Lynn did raise a child star. It’s the family business.
Read the full interview here.
