Vanity Affair: Celebs Plumb Depths With Self-Branded Sponsored Digital Magazines

In a whirling dervish of 24/7 digi-social notoriety, it’s not enough for some celebrities to garner massive Twitter followers or Facebook likes, so a growing list of personalities from Floyd Mayweather, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Deepak Chopra, Olivia Munn, Brett Ratner, Andrea Rosso, Steve Aoki, and Danny Trejo are launching their own branded magazines, brought to you, oh eager fan, by the appropriately named MYMAG Media. The celebrities get to choose the titles for their magazines, such as "Hey Olivia!" in Munn's case.

MYMAG is an interactive media platform aimed directly to fans with personalized publications with content that inspires the celeb and, of course, sponsors. Think of it as a celeb's tweets/Tumblr organized into handy readable form with photos and did we mention ads? Or put another way, "MYMAG is a platform for celebrities, popular artists, athletes and more to communicate with their fans in an entirely new way. It gives them a tangible, more personal connection to the people who follow their lives and careers most closely," says Magnus Greaves, founder and CEO of MYMAG.

“Every celebrity we’ve worked with," he adds, "has jumped at the opportunity to share documents, photographs and meaningful personal artifacts with their fans. Whether it’s an obscure Bloomingdale’s lingerie catalogue shot by Guy Bourdin (the late fashion photog chosen by Ratner for inclusion in his MYMAG) or never-seen photos from Chopra’s private albums, each of these prolific artists has poured passion and energy into the careful curation of a timeless magazine." (Documents? Lingerie Catalog? Tell us more!)

Along with digital and print merchandise, in a hybrid magazine-video layout, and partners ranging from Nylon magazine to Rolling Stone and GottaDanceDirty.com, the “ultimate website for electronic music worldwide," the MYMAG site includes (sponsored) playlist, such as a YouTube playlist from Danny Trejo and videos featuring the actor such as an Acting 101 clip on how to kiss on camera.

"TREJO," the name of his MyMag, is sponsored by Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and available digitally, free, on any mobile device with Zinio; TREJO on YouTube attracts sponsors and even more eyeballs.

“MYMAG, of course, is not just a magazine…During the launch party for his MYMAG, for example, Chopra read the lyrics to a song he and Michael Jackson had co-written but never produced — a galvanizing moment for everyone in attendance,” notes the site. Chopra’s video, sponsored by Fresh, is also on YouTube.

Diddy’s sponsored YouTube playlist offers 16 of his favorites including Grace Jones ("Corporate Cannibal") and Mary J. Blige ("I'm Goin' Down") and sponsored ads including Sony's Playstation. Brett Ratner’s YouTube Playlist boasts sponsors from HP to Starburst. DJ Steve Aoki’s playlist is sponsored by Diesel. You get the idea.

In short, by commercializing celebrities to a new degree, MYMAG uses the appeal (and ego) of celebrity personality to attract brand sponsorship and lure an audience to a highly visualized deep dive into one more digital altar of fame worship. And we have nobody to blame but ourselves.