Celebrity or 'VIP'?

05/11/06: Boinx company meeting. We're trying to figure out criteria for defining a key account customer. The boss goes 'any VIP, of course'. A VIP then? And carefully, but tenaciously asking back soon reveals, he's actually talking about 'celebrities': Persons, who - through their careers - have acquired an amount of recognition that you might call 'fame' with some businesses. Famous directors, for example, or actors, who may have taken an interest in creating their own little movies. So any single person, whose name or face has become public domain.

So, where's the difference? I remember some actors being referred to as 'VIP'. However, could it be that 'VIP' depends on the context it's used in? Such like a charity party, social events, donation parties, parties in general. It appears to me you can't generally refer to a person or a group of persons as 'VIPs'. You call them that when you intend to distinguish them from any other, apparently less significant group of people. Agreed? For example, I don't think you could say 'Michael Jackson is a VIP' as a general statement. You'd rather call him a 'celebrity', wouldn't you? By contrast, you could actually call him that when being mentioned along with the event he appears at: 'Michael Jackson is one of our VIPs tonight'.

What's your take on this?

Technorati Tags: english, german, translation errors