“Beautiful Germany” is the last anyone will hear from Kim Kardashian that afternoon unless she’s in the same room as her. The live stream simply stops after around twelve minutes of showtime. “Sorry folks, this slot won’t be streamed,” it now says on the screen. “But stay tuned, we’re back in action shortly!” It’s as if the beginning hadn’t been broadcast. As if the “action” wasn’t happening right now, there on this stage in Hamburg at the OMR digital marketing trade fair. Kardashian is said to have received a fee of 700,000 euros for her appearance.
When Kim Kardashian comes to Germany, directly on the private jet from the Met Gala in New York, where she appeared the evening before, you can be amazed. About the fact that billionaires like her actually live in a different world – not because they are so different, but because they are perceived so differently. The cancellation of the live stream also has something to do with this. It will later turn out that it was a technical error, but a different one than you would think.
But first you can see everything. And just a few minutes into her performance, all prejudices are confirmed. Kim Kardashian is, of course, a star who is not offended if he knows whether he has ever been to Hamburg. She doesn’t know, she says after greeting moderator Kai Pflaume, without having a microphone in her hand. She could only say that she had been to Germany before. And her grandmother is “partly German.” Cheers.
After parties are not her thing
She is also glad that she didn’t have to go to the Met after-parties and instead got on the plane straight away: “That’s not my thing,” she says, she really wanted to come here, to Hamburg. A statement that you can almost believe given her outfit at the Met Gala. Even on the Met carpet, Kardashian didn’t exactly look like she could last a second longer.
The shimmering silver corset on her waist was so unhealthily tight that it was still being discussed on social media two days after the event: Has Kardashian gone too far again? Is she a bad role model for young girls? Like at the Met Gala 2022, for which she underwent a brutal weight loss diet in order to fit into Marylin Monroe’s historic dress in which she celebrated her birthday with John F. Kennedy in 1962.
Now she’s wearing a more comfortable looking shiny dark dress with a ruffled turtleneck. Sitting on the stage in Hamburg are the American tech journalist Kara Swisher and OMR founder Philipp Westermeyer, who is visibly nervous. He wants to know which social media she uses the most. It’s a question that most in the room could answer for Kardashian. Kardashian has 363 million followers on Instagram, 75 million on X and 19 million on Tiktok.
No screen time while driving
And of course it’s also about artificial intelligence, the topic at this year’s trade fair. Kardashian says: “The AI debate is a very important one around the world and in my family.” She doesn’t think anyone would be happy with an artificial intelligence sitting here and being interviewed. She also couldn’t imagine having an artificial version of herself appear in commercials. There are already enough Kardashians.
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Westermeyer asks, somewhat awkwardly, whether it is stressful to use Tiktok because the algorithm works differently: It doesn’t depend on the number of followers as much as it does on creative videos. Every single one could, but doesn’t have to, go viral, and that’s difficult to predict in advance. Oh, it doesn’t bother her that much, says Kardashian. Only sometimes her daughter North forces her to do these ridiculous dances. She shares the 19 million follower account with her.
And then comes the moment when it becomes at least interesting, namely how the woman who owes her enormous success to social media assesses her children’s use of social media. She says she likes how creative kids are these days. How they developed the ideas for dance videos and videos in general, how they edited the films together.
“Put the mobile phone away”
But of course she wants to protect her children from possible harm from social media. For example, they are only allowed to sit in front of screens for a certain amount of time at certain times – and not in the morning, not while eating or driving. That’s what her mother always told her while driving: “be present”, “put your cell phone away, you’re here in beautiful Germany…” – then the stream stops.
Well, problems with the technology? An OMR spokeswoman says: No. It is usual for the big celebrities at the festival, to which 70,000 visitors are expected, not to be streamed. “These are the contractual conditions under which they want to appear.” Serena Williams also did not appear with a live stream last year.
And no, they don’t want to produce exclusive content only for paying participants – a ticket costs almost 500 euros – the contract rules are just like that. And: The fact that the first few minutes were broadcast was a directorial error; that happens, “even at a digital trade fair.” But that’s not a big deal. The OMR would be in contact with Kardashian’s team about this.
Actually, Kardashian should remain inaccessible to the world, once again, of course. What else, you might say.
What else happens in the scheduled 40 minutes of speaking time can be read and seen elsewhere later. At times, Kardashian’s performance even becomes political: a woman in the audience shouts “Free Palestine” for a minute. Kardashian doesn’t seem enthusiastic, but calmly says: “Free everybody”*. The woman is then taken away by security forces.
Kardashian is of course talking about her brands this afternoon, including her shapewear Skims. At the end she took selfies with Kai Pflaume. Later she speaks to Westermeyer again for half an hour in the luxury hotel “Vier Saisons” in Hamburg. This time in front of an audience of around 200, including many people who are considered A-list celebrities by non-Kardashians.
Will Kardashian post anything else about the OMR? Who knows if that was included in the deal with Westermeyer. There is still nothing to see on Instagram as of Wednesday afternoon. Instead, several stories and pictures from the Met Gala and her wasp waist.
Collaboration: Jana Roos