The Marketing Bestie Podcast with zoeunlimited - the art of playing dumb

Episode Date: July 9, 2026

✨Start your dream brand TODAY with a FREE shopify trial https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimitedshopify stay smart in SILENCE. paris hilton's marketing playbook👉🏻CHOOSE future topics through free email list https://tapthe.link/WDLnjLJy1 * A case study on digital marketing, branding, and business growth from a Gen Z perspectiveHow much money ($$$$) did Paris Hilton make from playing dumb? 👉🏻The first 500 people to use my link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare https://skl.sh/zoeunlimited08241Subscribe to learn how to build a brand.Learn & Grow with me.💖 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoeunlimited/💜 TikTok: http://www.tiktok.com/@zoeunlimited🖤 Listen on audio: http://apple.co/zoeunlimited🪭 All my outfits https://www.shopltk.com/explore/zoeunlimited👩🏻‍💻 LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/zoeunlimited🛒 Essentials https://www.amazon.com/shop/zoeunlimited📧 Business inquiries: [e-mail]//🕙Timestamps: 0:00 Intro5:06 racist t& homophobic but rich & hot8:37 why uncancellable10:08 branding slay12:42 branding crisis18:34 smart again?

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That's why L'Oreal Group has built a business that is inclusive at its heart with 100% of its brands championing diversity. With 25,000 professional opportunities for people under 30 worldwide and 54% of leading positions held by women, diversity is a strength that helps Loreal Group create the best beauty products for all people. Visit Loreal.com to learn more. If you want a $3,000 a month payday for life, what would you feel free to do? Maybe take a long weekend, every weekend, or try a bunch of new hobbies.

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I've always heard the people hang out at Walmart. Why? I don't know. Does like they sell wall stuff? Oopsie. Paris Hilton, the woman famous for being famous since 1996, has 45 branded stores, 19 product lines and skincare, 27 fragrances that have surpassed $4 billion in global revenue, who walked.

So Kim Kardashian, I love you, I love you, I love you. So Kim Kardashian, the run. Is it true? Even as someone with a history of racist and homophobic remarks, you can sell dumb for one billion. I'm not a dumb blonde. I'm not a dumb blonde. I'm not a dumb blonde.

I'm just very good at pretending to be one. Don't turn it up too hot. Gonna get chops. I'm from Bel Air, California. I have a degree in men. If there was one person destined to be a billion dollar entrepreneur, it must be Paris Hilton. Because of her insane relatability.

Of course I have a doggy mansion. Immaculate leadership. A strong work ethic. It's all about hard work ethic. And not at all related to her being a member of the wealthy and privileged Hilton legacy. Who are they? Never heard of them. Indeed.

Paris Hilton was named by Variety as a billion-dollar entrepreneur. A frequent spotholder of the Forbes Celebrity 100 list. had over 25 years of fame and was covered by every major media outlet. Like Cosmopolitan said, life lessons from Peresilton. Always cook your bacon on a scalding hot iron. Watch out for your closet organizer because she will get more famous than you. DJ in your free time because it might help you become a multi-millionaire. Can I ask how much money you make doing that?

Anywhere from like a couple hundred grand up to a million. So how in the world? With a messy history of racist and homophobic remarks, sex tape scandals, DUI, jail, and everything taboo, did Paris Hilton make herself cool again? I'm not talking about starting the tracksuit trend 10 years ago, but launching everything from perfumes, makeup, hair product, jewelry line, homeware line, pet line, cookie show, podcast book, and getting paid $1 million per DJ gig that are making her even richer than her parents.

Is there anything she can't do despite a messy record? That's exactly the mystery we will uncover today. But not only that, as your marketing bestie, who graduated top 1% UCLA-Bissus Economics with a background in marketing, we are going to explore how despite getting herself out of DUI jail, homophobic racist scandals, Paris Hilton will be facing the crumble of her billion-dollar brands

if she does not make the necessary changes soon. That's not hot. And by brand, I don't just me inheriting a name from a hotel. Branding is about how your future college, future boss, future boyfriend sees you. And I'm creating the series to analyze pulp culture girl icons from a marketing perspective because many of whom do not recognize the power of influence they have over a generation of young girls. I never had a job. Ever.

Did you? This episode is really important for anyone who has ever felt an identity crisis. Because despite how successful a facade might be, even billion dollars worth of a fake brand will lead to emotional poverty, fake friendships to be never taken seriously and eventually irrelevance. We'll talk about some of the biggest challenges Parasultama face in her rebrand and why it's such an urgent issue after 20 years of successful branding. I've always been fascinated by branding because it is just so intriguing how a name on a packaging can make product worth $50 sell for $100.

And it's a skill I'm always trying to grow through reading, keeping up with industry trends, and of course, Skillshare. Skillshare is the largest online learning community for creatives with thousands of classes led by industry experts across not just marketing, but film, illustration, design, freelance, productivity, and more. And if you want to learn more about building a successful brand yourself, our sponsor, Skillshare, can help. With their learning paths like, grow your first online business with marketing fundamentals where you can learn how to define your brand message, learn the needs of your target audience, craft a sustainable social media strategy, and so much more. Summer's the time to make the best use of your time and learn new skills. The first 500 people to use my link in the description will get a one-month free trial of Skillshare.

Get started today. Now let's begin analyzing the case of Parvier. Hilton. First, how does someone with a history of racist and homophobic remarks build a billion-dollar empire? Well, all I knew as an eight-year-old in China every time I come across the biggest Hilton in my city is that the Hilton conglomerate has a famous heiress, who is known to be a problematic nepo baby who loves to party, which is partially true. Paris is the great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton, founder of Hilton Hotels, who had a net worth

at $1 billion when he passed away. But plot twist, Bering, Paris's grandfather casually left the majority of his massive multi-billion fortune to his foundation, low-key cutting errors, including Paris, out of the bulk of the inheritance. But don't worry, Paris' family did not end up on the streets. Thanks to her father, Richard Hilton, from forming a super successful real estate business. But contrary to popular belief, Paris managed to grow a brand for herself and her businesses on track to surpass her parents' net worth.

But this, of course, came at a cost. Hear that? It's your money calling. It wants a promotion. Elevate your savings with the Scotia high-interest savings account. Always earn high regular interest rates that grow the more you save and invest. Conditions apply. Visit scotiabank.com slash h-I-SA to learn more. Scotia Bank. You're richer than you think.

This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify.

By 16th, the hawk lands on Netflix. From the mind of Will Ferrell. Oh, mama. I'm back. The cut in love. Comes a new original series. Get ready. Get ready. That's it.

Did I stutter? When an iconic pro golfer. Lonnie? Hockey! Takes one last swing at greatness. You were a big shot golfer. I still am a big shot golfer. No one.

Dad, I'm the Hawk now. We'll stand in his way. That's how it's done. The Hawk, only on Netflix, July 16th. Miss Hilton was a monster of her own creation. Of course they were gonna assume other wise, but I'm not a dumb blonde, I'm just very good at pretending to be one. While known as a model and socialite in the late 1990s, her break into stardom came from the Fox reality series, The Simple Life, that followed two wealthy socialites, Paris and Nicol Richie, as they venture out into the real world. We would just want to know if we can borrow like $5.

America and struggle to do jobs such as cleaning and restaurant work Girls come here please entertaining as a privileged and out of touch Nepal babies they were What is Walmart? Is like they sell wall stuff? Paris Hilton created an image of a rich blonde airhead

that will remain an identity in her brand Can you put this in the microwave Nicole? Um, I guess. And it works. Even though seen as a persona ridiculed, it was a memorable brand that opened up a whole suite of opportunities, including TV shows, movies. Although the characters are an exact replica of her real-life brand.

What TV guide called Talentless, and won her the 2005 Razzie for worst supporting actress. It really does not matter because it follows the golden, rule of creating a strong brand. Consistency. From her reality show to her acting career to eventually her singing career, Paris Hilton built a memorable image of being hot, dumb, talentless, but famous. And this brand sells. It follows the media's appetite for appearance over substance. And the scandals of her either got a good laugh or attracted more attention. Paris Hilton walked, so Kim Kardashian could run.

The appeal to having a full resume of scandals is the rebellious nature inherited in this hot and problematic brand. The more problematic, the more the brand grows. From leaked sex tapes to the celebrity dramas with other major celebrities to saying racial slurs and homophobic phrases, weren't these offenses enough to get Paris Hilton canceled? For sure. So why did she not only survive? but also grew her businesses to surpass the $1 billion mark. Simple.

Two reasons. First, Paris has secured a younger generation of fans in recent years who simply weren't around when the scandals happened. Second, Paris Hilton was never taken seriously. The dumb blonde persona she played not only helped her dodge any speculations of ill will and only made her look reckless, but also covered the fact that she is actually an extremely important. an extremely intelligent entrepreneur who could be seen as a threat underneath this blonde airhead mask. Do not be full that just because the personal brand of Paris Hilton is dumb

and problematic that she does not know what she's doing. It is actually a very smart tactic to protect herself in such an aggressive industry and to grow her business ventures and investments to a massive scale quietly. In 2004 she released her first fragrance Paris Hilton. with such a success that it increased the business for the production firm, Perlux fragrances, by 40%. And since then, it has expanded over 30 cents that has earned billions. The initial offerings were predominantly fruity and floral in line with Peres Hilton's youthful feminine brand direction and perfectly targeted the young female demographic who were followers

of Peres Hilton through her drama, reality TV appearances. the brandy success of Peres-Helton can be summarized in two main factors. First, Paris was a visionary and ahead of her time. She saw that there was a strong demand from her audiences to learn more about her and did what no other socialite or Napalbaby did at the time, satisfying the curiosity of the masses and allowing audiences a glimpse into her personal life. She invented influencing before it even became a thing and paved the road for for the Kardashians and other celebrity influencers

through how she skillfully leveraged MySpace and Facebook to grow a parasocial relationship. No matter what the new hot platform is, Paris Hilton managed to capture an audience on there. As seen in her now 10 million TikTok account, connecting her to a new Gen Z audience. As a legacy of every massive following she builds, her followers are in such a diverse age group

from 18 to 45 to be exact, who have a huge range of financial power to shop anything from the mid to high price range with a variety of consumer needs. Second, in all the decades that Peres Hilton has been famous, sure, she might be branded as problematic, but there have never been reports of Peres Hilton being difficult to work with professionally.

Reputations of Peres Hilton have been exemplary, often citing that she is the hardest worker in the room, which built a trustworthy brand that extended to the quality of the product she launches and the quality of the brands that she decides to collaborate with. She is very selective in working with some of the highest quality brands, such as Living Proof, that matches her visual identity of the iconic blonde hair, or Vasace that matches with her over-the-top aesthetic. Thus, she does not come across as a sellout. Because of her vibrant, glamorous, and undeniably interesting lifestyle, she sold that dream and lifestyle to millions of women, who both

aspire to be like her and also don't feel threatened because of how she positioned herself as the airhead. With that, everything in this lifestyle, clothing, makeup, skincare, lingerie pet merch can be sold under Paris's name and feel authentic to her. The over-the-top girly aesthetic eventually became a trend in itself, and any scandals only brought more public attention to Paris Hilton, thus her brands. While this personal brand launched so many successful brands to bring in billions, there was one major problem. Actually, two.

First, despite an incredible record of staying relevant and appealing to every new generation to come in the last 20 years, there will come on time when the young and dumb brand can no longer be pulled by Paris Hilton, who despite looking like she is in her 20s, is 43 now. Second, this brand was fabricated all along. It was only a character that she was playing. During an appearance on the Australian Morning Show Sunrise, Paris said that she even changed her natural speaking voice when she was in front of the camera to make herself sound less intelligent.

Who actually knew what Walmart was? Yes, I know exactly what Walmart is. Imagine living in life despite having millions of fans, tons of celebrity friends, but no one. No one knew you, the real you, and feel like living like an imposter for over 20 years, feeling imprisonment in a shell of a character. That was the crisis Paris Hilton was in. And after catching in over 20 years of playing a character almost 24-7, Paris told

U.S. Vogue after the release of her documentary, quote, I don't want to be remembered as that dumb, blonde airhead from the simple life. That's not who I am. And I want to show that because I am very proud of the woman I am and what I've created. But like I said before, a brand is not what you tell people you are. It is what you are in people's minds. As a queen of clickbait, Paris Hilton clickbaited herself into a life she no longer wants. And she can't return it simply with a two-hour long documentary to undo 20 years of problematic records.

Like so many of us during our teenage years, what Pereseltin wanted was attention, but what she needed was purpose and respect. Fortunately or unfortunately for her, she was too good at playing this problematic brand. That her teenagehood lasted for more than 20 years, and it is finally time to grow up. The real story of Peresilton. The official documentary of Peresilton was really, released in 2020. Can you and the brand have a divorce now? But I wasn't even aware of her intent to rebrand until watching this documentary four years after. Because on the outside, the visual brand of Paris Sultan is still very much the same. Still pink, over-the-top glam, chic, and associated with a young nightlife party scene from all her event appearances

to her brand collaborations, which is why it was a surprise to me to see the other side of Paris in this documentary. Talking about deeper issues of her past traumas, abuses, and her relationship with the misogyny she also suffered through, despite somewhat even adding to the norm of the objectification of women, that is part of her existing brand. Which I don't blame her. It's not a system that she created or can change alone. And this persona that turned into a billion-dollar brand is her protection. This documentary began the reintroduction at Paris Hilton, not the persona, but the real person. Which does have a catch to it, as I'll explain,

but this regardless was a genius marketing move. As Gen Z's become more economically capable, this market will be the dominant force of consumption for the upcoming decades. And what does the Gen Z market care about most? Brand identity. What does the brand stand for? The new vulnerable side of Pereseltin, en masse, led to her new cause of helping trouble teams,

teens who experienced abuse like her. The brand is now more than just about partying, pink, and glam. It stands for something that some might not care about, but others will fight for. But here's the catch. Yes, we now know there's death to Paris Hilton and that her new serious rebrand is about shedding the airhead persona, being a savvy businesswoman, and caring about things more than just party and glam. But visually, her brand is just not because.

communicating that. Which brings up the biggest dilemma she needs to solve ASAP. First, visual identity is undoubtedly the biggest asset of the Paraselden brand. The bombshell blonde and pink glam are what allowed her to do millions of dollars of endorsement deals and sell her perfume makeup clothing lines. But that is also the exact image tied to this carefully curated airhead persona that she is trying to shed. There is a huge risk to changing that, but without a visual her prior brand won't magically transform into a smart and serious businesswoman with just one documentary. So far, visually, she is still very much the same girl as 20 years ago.

Second, as seen in how to spy bringing on a whole slew a celebrity guest, her cooking show on Netflix was just canceled after one season. Why? Well, quote, the part of the show that actually was worth watching was a few seconds where her and Kim Kardashian were staring at a wall of appliances, trying to figure out which one was a blender. It is a blender, yes. Blender, blender, blender. Oh, not. Yeah.

This? Yes. Okay. In other words, being unrelatably dumb or unrelatably privileged do not know what a blender is, it's just unrelatable. Influencing by flexing wealth may have worked in the last 20 years, but creates distance in this wave of pulp culture, which is why it is not about a bad thing.

not a bad idea for Paris Hilton to show more of the behind the scenes of her being a businesswoman and tech investor. Go the aspirational route. Obviously, Paris Hilton is already a branding genius and here are a few things that she has done extremely well in this rebranding. First, the format of her content, focusing on longer format content like podcasting, where the emphasis is not just the surface level visuals, but also what she is talking about. And a lot of respect for Paris. As an insanely busy woman, she kept an extremely consistent uploading schedule for her podcasts, showing commitment to sharing her new brand.

Second, tapping into her mom identity while not losing the sheikness. Although it is a little controversial to show your kids online to millions of strangers, showing glimpse of motherhood humanizes Paris Hilton and helps her connect with some of her oldest fan base, who grew up with her. Now be mothers themselves. While not losing the acre factor with her younger audiences, because the visual core identity is still very consistent. Showing that motherhood doesn't need to be boring, as she is clearly sliving as a hot and fun mom. Let me know your thoughts on if you think Peresilton is on the right track

to successfully rebrand and do someone to be taken seriously. And comment below which pub culture girl icon we should analyze next through the marketing perspective. This is your marketing bestie, Zoe Unlimited. Share this video for Impact and I will see you next week.