What is “Brand Beckham”? I don’t mean to question the very idea of a celebrity brand – far from it. In fact, part of the reason that celeb-watching phrases like “the brand” and “controlling the narrative” have gone completely mainstream is because of David and Victoria Beckham. So ubiquitous is the professionalisation of celebrity these days, and so media-literate is the public, that it’s hard to remember just how revolutionary the Beckhams were in British culture back in the day. Twenty-five years ago, nobody except some rarefied elite publicist wanged on about narratives. But now everyone knows how to read an influencer. Almost all celebrities are regarded primarily as people who are selling something. Furthermore, people act like mis-selling a lifestyle is worse than several major financial crimes.

Anyway, back to the brand. What is the Beckham brand? Not their many specific product brands, nor the many other ones to which they lend their images for advertising. The thing I’m talking about is more like a movie star’s screen persona. The unifying characteristic, the theme that permeates all their roles, the magic that fans go back for. In the case of the Beckhams, the brand is really their family. Two became six.

In the more distant past, this meant Victoria and David selling news of their pregnancies to OK! magazine, then selling the first baby photos and so on. In the age of Instagram, as their children have grown up, it has meant constantly tending this idyllic image by posting private family moments, having everyone show up en masse for the launch of each other’s football seasons/fashion shows/face primers/food lines/50th birthday marathons, and dutifully sending daily public messages of love, support and thanks to each other across social media........

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