A few months back, a good friend of mine and close follower of celebrity endorsements, who also happens to be Gwyneth Paltrow’s No. 2 fan, sent me a post from the Goop founder’s Instagram account. In it, she was selling a posture corrector from “copper-infused activewear brand” Copper Fit, which also makes things like “arch relief” compression bands. This past week, Paltrow extolled the virtues of Copper Fit’s “core shaper,” something I’d argue she doesn’t need for many reasons, one being her trainer of 17 years, Tracy Anderson.
Why, then? The answer to nearly all questions in life comes down to money. With Paltrow, however, it’s more complex than that. In some ways, the fact that she has been the spokesperson for Copper Fit since late 2021 is not surprising: Strike or no strike, celebrities increasingly rely on multiple, varied income streams to supplement their lifestyles. (Movies very rarely make you rich these days.) And Paltrow stopped acting in 2019, anyway.
Perhaps more important, like her role model Martha Stewart, G.P. does not give a shit what people think of her, and therefore doesn’t seem to have any qualms partnering with the likes of Airbnb or Flow water. (Which, I gotta say, is the best water in the world and I didn’t need Paltrow to tell me so. To the folks at Flow water: Please advertise on Puck.) All kidding aside, it’s no wonder I’m hearing that Amy Odell, the journalist and author of the recent Anna Wintour biography, is working on a book about her: Print may be dying, but Paltrow can convincingly sell anything.
And she has, through Goop, the newsletter-turned-online magazine-turned e-commerce play-turned full-fledged lifestyle brand, which she founded in 2008. Today, Goop is Paltrow’s main shilling platform, and her main reason to shill. Some of Paltrow’s endorsements are run through Goop, others are personal. (As for how she decides what is Goop and what is G.P., I’m told that it’s a case-by-case basis. If it feels appropriate to promote the sponsorship through Goop channels, then the deal is often done through Goop.)
