Celebrity brand break-up: fan experiences of para-loveshock

When consumers become fans of celebrities, they can form intense emotional attachments that resemble a kind of love. Although the love felt for celebrities is based on one-sided parasocial relationships, fans nevertheless experience a trauma that they consider to be very real when these illusory relationships end. We explore how fans manage and perform their break-up with a beloved celebrity brand following public allegations of wrongdoing. Building on Giddens’ theorization of loveshock – which encapsulates the disorienting after-effects of falling out of love – we propose the new concept of para-loveshock. Para-loveshock is performed socially and discursively through three fan practices: grief enfranchisement; flagellation; and indignation. Recognizing how fans perform and legitimize their trauma through these practices helps to sensitize managers to the importance of consumer identity work following celebrity transgressions. This has implications for how damage control efforts are planned and how managers engage with fans when responding to celebrity transgression.