We've all seen it happen. One celebrity insults another via Twitter, and the other sees it and gets all mad and goes off on their offender.
Nicki and Farrah. B.O.B and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Kanye and Wiz. Amber Rose and...basically anybody.
These are some of the most recent notable Twitter fights that have gone down. These combinations of people are usually so random and odd (especially B.O.B and Tyson) that it gets the media's attention.
After the Kanye and Wiz beef, it got me thinking, are Twitter fights really spontaneous?
Think about it. Celebs probably get thousands of mentions a minute. Many of these people are saying the same hateful things, knowing that the celeb won't see it. How would they just happen to see someone famous calling them out?
How would Kanye even see Wiz talking trash? He doesn't follow him. Yes, it's a possibility that maybe fans were tweeting him about it. But, people tweet Kanye random stuff every second.
Also, it's not like Kanye actually looks through his mentions. Celebrities have better things to do than that. They often hire people to run their Twitter pages for them. It is possible that his assistant noticed fans tweeting him about Wiz, and then Kanye took matters into his own hands (because this definitely wasn't an assistant).
Twitter fights can also cause hype to promote something. In the screengrab above, Kanye uses a "Kimoji" from his wife's new Emoji app. What better way to promote the new app than to use it in the biggest Twitter fight of 2016?
Also, the whole focus of this fight was on the name of Kanye's new album. This fight is probably better advertising for "Waves" than any commercial or Facebook ad would ever be.
Another Twitter fight used to promote something was the Drake and Meek Mill fight. They both released diss tracks about each other, and these songs got major attention because of the fight. This fight is still going on, with Drake and Meek dropping new diss tracks just in time for Drake to announce the release date for his new album. Drake's new diss track even references Kanye and Wiz's fight. What better way to keep fans interested?
These fights are always so dumb, but they getso much media attention. You can probably search the names of celebrities that are fighting on Google and find hundreds of articles within 10 minutes of the fight. One Direction fights probably win for most media coverage, but then again, anything they do wins the most media coverage.
Not all fights are used for self-promotion. Twitter fights are one of the best ways for washed-up celebrities to get back into the limelight. Think back to the Nicki and Farrah fight. When's the last time you heard anything about Farrah before then (besides her many plastic surgery procedures)? Exactly. Engaging in that fight with Nicki was a great way for her to get back in the spotlight (even though, considering the context of the fight, it probably wasn't the best way).
Sometimes these fights are used to promote a new product, but others are merely a result of desperation for attention.
