Cardi B was interviewed on Beats 1 to promote her new single “Money” this week andrevealed to Ebro Darden that:
"Me and my husband [Offset]...We just don’t wanna show our baby right now," Cardi said before adding "I got offered seven figures [for baby pictures]."
What year are we in? Is it 2005? Back then, this was definitely a thing. And for three years or so it was a big thing. Big stars were offered big money for their baby photos. Millions and millions of dollars. And it peaked when the Brange twins were born. At the time, the reports were that they were paid $14 million, a record, for the baby photo album. This on top of what they were already paid when Shiloh was born.
When there’s a peak, inevitably there’s a decline. And eventually, the “celebrity” baby photos got so down-market that top level stars weren’t interested anymore, because it became the domain of the reality star. Another factor was social media. As more celebrities joined Twitter and Instagram, and started monetising from those platforms, the magazine baby photo reveal became even more irrelevant. Here’s what you can’t do with a magazine baby photo reveal: track the entire “journey” of the pregnancy. On Instagram, you can now start with the pregnancy announcement. Then move on to the gender reveal (ugh). And on and on and on until birth. And the first photo after birth. And the six month photo. And the one year photo. It’s endless opportunity. It’s more and more followers. It’s much more engagement than a magazine can give you.
So it’s not thatCardi’s turning down money. It’s that she’s turning down old money. Because she’s already getting new money, in a different stream, spread out in different stages, in other ways.
I wonder though….who was it that was offering Cardi that kind of money? Because if I’m part of that organisation, I’m like, how is that a smart business move?
