The reduction of famous people to their image leads to a process of commodification and, obviously, the consumption of that commodity. The role of capitalism in the West, and its rapid adoption in America, creates a culture of consumption; While the advent of technology has certainly provided additional tools, Amy Henderson draws a clearer line between celebrity creation and consumption, arguing that celebrities mark a nation's transition from a producing society to a consuming society [Henderson, 1992 ]. But while the commodification of the celebrity image makes it consumable and leads to celebrities being employed by companies to market products to us (from credit cards to airline tickets), it also makes it disposable; Celebrities today must strive to survive the expiration date of the products they have to promote. The commodified image of celebrity can be eliminated as quickly as it can be created; the fate of every singer with a huge hit song, or every actor who gets pigeonholed into a single role. The fodder can suffer as much as the devouring hordes, who spend their time and money on romanticized ideals. Regardless of the destructive nature of celebrity culture, the question still arises as to whether there is an evolutionary basis from which this celebrity status arises. from. Dr Jamie Tehrani, an anthropologist at the University of Durham, believes there is an evolutionary reason why we follow celebrities. It is based on the notion of prestige and social status, which can be bestowed on someone for a particularly advantageous adaptive skill, such as a hunting technique; just as hunters will try to imitate the most successful hunter of the group, sharpening their tools with the same movements, or performing the same ritual...... middle of paper ......t as for those who remember Sean Connery, or John Wayne, or John Lennon, people whose greatest achievement was to provide simple entertainment to the masses, and the answer becomes very different. Sure, Jan Oort gave his name to the Oort cloud, but then again the number of people who know what the Oort cloud is is sadly small compared to the number of people who have memorized the lyrics to any Coldplay song. On some level, given these challenges of existence, it makes perfect sense to want to become a celebrity; Who wouldn't want a captive audience willing to care about the things they care about or hold their opinion above others? There is immense communicative power involved in such a master-slave vocal relationship; for followers of celebrity, that celebrity carries more weight than most human beings on earth and can be an intoxicating drug for anyone.