It’s business as usual for Brand Beckham – and the strategy is paying off
In the wake of eldest son Brooklyn’s social media bombshell last week, the Beckham family have doubled down on their usual photo opps and social media tributes. Katie Rosseinsky explores how their tactics are working
Striding out in a line dressed (almost) all in black, with slight smiles playing on their faces, the Beckhams looked a little like a high fashion mob family as they made a joint appearance in Paris on Monday. It probably wasn’t the sartorial reference they were going for – but it felt quite apt for a clan closing ranks, after a tearaway faction took a very public shot at their supremacy.
When David and Victoria’s 26-year-old son Brooklyn broke the Beckhams’ showbiz omerta last week with an explosive Instagram statement, one question immediately arose. How would Britain’s media-savvy golden couple respond to this devastating salvo, in which their eldest child accused them of, among a whole array of headline-grabbing allegations, “public promotion and endorsement above all else” and “trying endlessly to ruin [his] relationship” with wife Nicola Peltz Beckham?
Would they issue a rejoinder of their own, and risk being dragged into a social media war of words? Would they dredge out the wedding video to disprove their son’s suggestion that Victoria’s mother-of-the-groom dancing was “very inappropriate”? Or would they take a leaf out of the royal family’s “never complain, never explain” playbook and simply carry on as normal?
For the Beckhams, it was surely always going to be the latter option. They are, of course, seasoned professionals when it comes to the art of the agenda-shaping photo opp (remember when David and Victoria paraded around on the slopes of Courchevel amid allegations of an affair with Rebecca Loos?). And they will be all too aware that a smiling family snap is worth a thousand words (or, in Brooklyn’s case, 821 words).
Indeed, the past week or so seems to have been a case of business as usual for the clan – with an extra sprinkling of fashion industry stardust. The effect of it all? To make us feel silly for even questioning whether Brooklyn’s statement could ever really send this celebrity dynasty into a tailspin. Reports of Brand Beckham’s death, it seems, have been greatly exaggerated.
It was Victoria who appeared to be the main target of her son’s ire, thanks to the aforementioned dancing, along with allegations that her fashion brand had pulled out of making Nicola’s wedding dress at the “eleventh hour”. But the Beckham matriarch has managed to rise above it all with a clever (and at least partially organic) strategy bridging high and low culture.
Would Victoria have attended Emma “Baby Spice” Bunton’s 50th birthday party last weekend if Brooklyn hadn’t just lobbed a verbal grenade at the family brand? Most probably, yes. Friendship never ends, and all that. Will she have been hyper-aware of just how useful a photo of her and three of her Spice Girls pals (Mel B was off on her honeymoon) might prove as a distraction? Also yes. If ever there was a tactic precision-engineered to secure your place in the good graces of a certain millennial British demographic, it’s a Spice Girls reunion.
Indeed, the sense of nostalgia that Victoria can still conjure up was out in force on social media in the aftermath of Brooklyn’s big Prince Harry moment, as fans shared clips of old dance routines from her brief Noughties solo career (it surely wasn’t what her son had envisaged after that “inappropriate” jibe, but hey – taking the piss is a national sport on this side of the Atlantic). Her 2001 track “Not Such an Innocent Girl” even climbed to the top of the singles sale charts (trouncing the number six spot it reached 25 years earlier).
The gears in the Beckham machine may be grinding away behind the scenes, but you have to hand it to them: they make it look very easy
Monday, though, proved a reminder that, although she may have started as a slightly scrappy popstar, Victoria is now a respected fashion tastemaker. In a glamorous ceremony held during Paris Couture Week, the designer was made a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by French culture minister Rachida Dati, in recognition of her contribution to the industry. Also on the guest list were major players such as Anna Wintour and Francois-Henri Pinault, president of the luxury fashion conglomerate Kering.
Again, the date will surely have been in the calendar for months, but what impeccable timing. The Beckhams do big events like this one very well indeed. The kids (minus Brooklyn) all dressed in dark hues, mirroring their mum and dad in a display of sartorial unity. The photos posted on Instagram afterwards, showing them posing en famille in front of a lavish backdrop of chandeliers and gilded panelling, felt like a very chic power move.
Romeo and Cruz’s girlfriends, Kim Turnbull and Jackie Apostel, also present at the ceremony, were rigorously on brand, too, with social media posts in praise of Victoria’s “kindness and respect” (per Jackie) and “role model” status (per Kim). No nightmare mother-in-law narratives here; it was hard not to interpret their words as a rejoinder to the Peltz Beckham branch of the family.
Yes, those images and gushing soundbites arguably tally up with Brooklyn’s jab about “performative social media posts”. But, as ever with the Beckhams, even when you have a sneaking suspicion that you might be being played, it’s very easy to fall for the smiles, the shiny surfaces and the lookalike kids. Call it celebrity-induced cognitive dissonance if you will. The gears in the Beckham machine may be grinding away behind the scenes, but you have to hand it to them: they make it look very easy.
The family’s only wild card is 20-year-old Cruz, which can probably be explained by the fact that, well, he’s only 20 years old. The aspiring musician has been liking memes about his mum’s wedding dance, and earlier this week, posted a video clip showing him, his brother Romeo (23), and their respective girlfriends in a Paris taxi. “Imagine hating and we’re just here like,” he wrote in the caption.
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His cryptic words appeared to allude to Brooklyn’s bombshell statement (in which one of the eldest Beckham son’s claims was that his brothers were “sent to attack [him] on social media” before blocking him “out of nowhere this last summer”). Crucially, they were also vague enough for plausible deniability - but Cruz (or possibly another member of Brand Beckham) seemed to have second thoughts, as the post was quickly deleted.
It can’t entirely be a coincidence, either, that both Cruz and Romeo appear to have made strides in their fledgling careers over the past few days, too. Last Friday, Romeo walked in the Willy Chavarria catwalk show as part of Paris’ menswear fashion week, marking his latest foray into the modelling industry (he’s previously walked for the likes of Versace and Balenciaga).
Cruz, meanwhile, has just announced his first UK tour with his band, the Breakers, along with European dates in Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin. While the Brooklyn furore must have been fraught for them to navigate, it has also surely thrown some refracted spotlight onto these solo endeavours.
Victoria’s next big moment will be her fashion brand’s AW26 show in the City of Light in just a few weeks. The “united front” strategy will doubtless still be in full force. Expect to see the Beckham clan 2.0, with associated plus ones, sitting pretty on the front row in support. Never has one famous family understood the power of image so well.
Additional reading: I’ve seen behind the scenes of Brand Beckham and it wasn’t always pretty
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