Why Celebs are Failing: 5 Reasons You’re Doing Blockout 2024 Wrong

Your block list is a placebo.

You think you’re starting a revolution. You think a red "blocked" button is a digital guillotine. You’re wrong.

I’ve spent the last decade tracking how attention moves online. I’ve seen movements rise and vanish in a single refresh cycle. Blockout 2024 is the most significant shift in consumer behavior we’ve seen in years, but most of you are doing it wrong.

You are hitting the button, but you aren't hitting the bottom line.

Celebrity culture is failing. That part is true. The "untouchable" era of the A-lister is over. But if you want to actually dismantle a system, you have to understand how the system makes money.

Here is why your "Digital Guillotine" is blunt, and how to actually sharpen it.

You are blocking people you never followed.

This is the biggest mistake. I see the screenshots. People are blocking reality stars they’ve never watched and pop stars they’ve never listened to.

It feels productive. It isn't.

The algorithm already knew you didn't like them. If you don't follow them, your "block" is a drop of water in the ocean. You aren't "removing" your attention because you weren't giving it in the first place.

Real leverage isn't in blocking your enemies. It’s in blocking your idols.

The movement fails because people are unwilling to block the "problematic" celeb they actually enjoy. You’ll block a Kardashian, but you won't block the indie artist who is doing the exact same thing because you "need" their music.

If your block list doesn't hurt you, it definitely isn't hurting them.

The goal isn't to vent your frustration. The goal is to tank their CPM. Advertisers pay for reach. If you never provided that reach, your block is a ghost.

You are ignoring the "Middle Class" of fame.

Everyone is focused on the Met Gala attendees. The giants. The household names.

Those people have "Legacy Wealth." They can survive a 10% dip in engagement. They have real estate, fragrance lines, and private equity. They are insulated from your clicking.

The people who actually fear the Blockout are the "Middle Class" influencers. The ones with 500k to 2 million followers.

These are the people whose entire lives are subsidized by brand deals. They don't have legacy wealth. They have "Lifestyle Debt." They need the next Revolve trip. They need the next skincare sponsorship.

I looked at the data from the last three weeks. While the A-listers are losing followers, the mid-tier influencers are the ones panicking. They are the ones actually changing their content because their survival depends on it.

If you want to move the needle, stop obsessing over the billionaires. Target the gatekeepers. Target the people who are desperate to become the billionaires. They are the ones who actually listen because they have everything to lose.

The "Engagement Trap" is still working.

Negativity is still engagement.

If you spend twenty minutes scrolling through a celebrity's comments to find "receipts" before you block them, they just won across two different metrics.

First, you increased their "dwell time." The algorithm sees you lingering on their page and decides their content is "high interest."

Second, you added to the comment count. Brands don't always look at the sentiment of comments; they look at the volume.

I’ve seen influencers get massive brand deals specifically because they were "controversial." Why? Because controversy equals eyeballs.

If you want to kill a celebrity’s career, you don't argue with them. You don't "call them out." You become indifferent.

The opposite of love isn't hate. It’s silence.

Most people are "hate-blocking." They make a 3-minute video explaining why they are blocking someone. That video keeps the celebrity’s name in the trending cycle. You are keeping the corpse warm.

You aren't blocking the money.

A block is a personal choice. A boycott is a financial one.

Celebrities are just the mascots for massive corporations. If you block a singer but keep buying the soda they promote, you’ve done nothing.

The "Blockout" is failing because it stops at the person. It doesn't follow the money to the parent company.

I spent years analyzing brand safety. Do you know what brands hate? Not "controversial" stars. They hate "unprofitable" stars.

If you block a celebrity, the brand just finds a new face. But if you tell the brand that their association with that face makes you stop buying the product, the board of directors starts sweating.

The Insight: The "Niche-ification" of Authority.

Here is the truth nobody wants to hear: The "Main Character" celebrity is dead anyway.

The Blockout isn't the cause; it’s the catalyst. We are moving into an era of "Micro-Authorities."

We don't want a movie star to tell us what to wear. We want a guy in a garage who knows everything about denim. We don't want a pop star to tell us who to vote for. We want a policy expert who explains things in 60 seconds.

The Blockout is working because it is accelerating the "Trust Decay."

I predict that by 2025, the concept of a "Global Celebrity" will be a relic. We are fracturing into thousands of small tribes. In those tribes, "status" isn't about how many people know your name. It’s about how many people trust your word.

The celebs are failing because they tried to be "everything to everyone" while the world was asking them to be "something to someone."

They stayed neutral to protect the bag. Now, the bag is empty because nobody trusts a neutral actor in a crisis.

The Blockout isn't about Gaza. It’s about the end of the Parasocial Contract. The audience is finally realizing they are the ones who pay the bills.

The power isn't in the block button. The power is in the realization that you don't need them to tell you what's cool.

You aren't just blocking a person. You are blocking an entire era of marketing.

Who is the last person you blocked, and did you actually follow them first?