This week the Golden Globes brought us a red carpet full of dresses that looked impossible to pee in, Emma Stone’s cringe-worthy “Sorry!” in response to Sandra Oh’s epic burn, and above all, it brought us Fiji Water Girl.
Fiji Water Girl was crowned the real hero of the awards ceremony for her A+ photobombing of countless celebrity red carpet pictures while handing out bottles of Fiji Water.
Serving water? Oh honey, miss thing is serving ?????! ? No one is working harder at the #GoldenGlobes than the Fiji water girl. ?? pic.twitter.com/oAtyhKqv63
— Entertainment Tonight (@etnow) January 7, 2019
In short, Fiji Water Girl has become an internet sensation, and the whole thing is very suspicious.
On surface level it looks like a successfully invasive marketing campaign by Fiji Water. Fiji Water getting in shots with A-lister celebs to align their product with luxury lifestyle? Check. The girl serving the water simultaneously serving viral-worthy looks? A lucky bonus…?
Or maybe that’s what they want us to think. Let’s dig a little deeper.
#1. Kelleth Cuthbert and her 15 minutes of fame.
Since the world fell for the Fiji Water Girl’s smouldering background shots, Kelleth Cuthbert has been enjoying her 15 minutes of fame. Except in this day and age, 15 minutes of fame can launch a whole influencer career.
Kelleth was a small-time model, influencer, and aspiring actor with just over 50k followers, and now she’s appeared on the Late Late Show With James Corden, recorded with E! News and Glamour, gotten the official meme treatment and has nearly 220k followers on Instagram.
FWG has this whole oops-I-accidentally-stumbled-into-the-spotlight act down pat, crediting the event coordinators putting her in a “high-traffic” red carpet area and her years of modelling for her tendency to “give a face” when a camera clicks. She’s all starry eyed and just super surprised at the accidental viral fame.
But we’re not buying it. This girl knows exactly what she’s doing, and she’d doing a damn good job.
Fiji Water thought they were using Kelleth Cuthbert, but Kelleth Cuthbert was using them right back. She saw her moment and she pounced. Nicely played Kelleth.
#2. Kris Jenner is involved.
Kris Jenner is the queen of making someone famous for nothing, and the Fiji Water Girl sensation has her fingerprints all over it.
Plus look at those cheekbones. And Kelleth does start with a K. Is she a Kardashian???
Not impossible.
#3. She’s a social experiment.
Take one random tall skinny white girl with no known talent and see if she can upstage actual celebrities including people who have worked their whole lives to get onto this red carpet.
Results: celebrity is a concept almost as fickle as our attention span.
#4. She’s trying to tell us something.
OK, who is coming to the Golden Globes to get this hydrated? There are Fiji Water bottles everywhere both on the red carpet and inside the venue, and people are looking all too stoked about drinking it.
What’s really in that Fiji water? Eh? What is she trying to tell us?
#5. The moon landing was fake.
Fiji Water Girl was definitely involved.
#6. She’s a plant in a ploy against Jamie Lee Curtis.
Jamie Lee Curtis basically dragged the Fiji Water photobombing strategy, asserting that “The sponsors of events need to get permission from people before they try 2 take their picture with them.”
She makes a very good point.
But if you refuse to pose with Fiji Water, they send in Fiji Water Girl. And Fiji Water Girl works twice as hard.
So, I specifically moved away from the blatant Fiji & Moet promotions. I knew there was a photographer poised & I moved as I didn’t want to be doing advertising for either. The sponsors of events need to get permission from people before they try 2 take their picture with them. pic.twitter.com/MudU1bwwtM
— Jamie Lee Curtis (@jamieleecurtis) January 9, 2019
#7. The pretty girl is just a distraction.
This is a carefully planned plot to keep Fiji Water associated with fun and glamour, and keep our minds off the damage of plastic water bottle pollution that companies like Fiji Water contribute to.
We’re celebrating the copious Fiji Water plastic bottles instead of lamenting them. We’ve been played.