Even if you know nothing about Kim Kardashian, you could hazard a guess that she isn't short on money.
Let's say, you've never followed her on Instagram, you've never paid a moment's attention to her marriage with Kanye West, and you've seen even a single minute of a Keeping Up With The Kardashians. You're probably still well aware that she's one of the most famous people in the entire world, and you can safely assume that this gives her very deep pockets.
But just how deep those pockets actually are is completely mind-blowing. According to a recent report from medical journalism website STAT - which obtained a July 2015 contract between the reality TV star's company, Kimsaprincess, and Duchesnay USA, the maker of morning sickness pill Diclegis - Kim made an eye-watering $500,000 from one July 2015 post about the pill.
You no doubt are well aware that $500,000 is a lot of money for a single Instagram post, but just to put this in perspective, this amount of cash could buy you a private island in the South Pacific, pay for roughly 10 people's tuition at Ivy League colleges or buy you a ticket to Mars in the future (according to Elon Musk, anyway).
Not only that, but Kim's half a million dollars Instagram post is more than the president's salary for the year. Yep, that's right. President Donald Trump, and those who have gone before him, earn $400,000 a year.
So, what exactly did Kim write to make her post worth its fee? She simply uploaded a photo of herself with a bottle of Diclegis, with a caption that spoke of the terrible morning sickness she suffered through while pregnant and claimed that Diclegis solved all of her problems with it.
"OMG. Have you heard about this? As you guys know my #morningsickness has been pretty bad," she wrote. "I tried changing things about my lifestyle, like my diet, but nothing helped, so I talked to my doctor. He prescribed me #Diclegis, and I felt a lot better and most importantly, it's been studied and there was no increased risk to the baby."
However, being a Kardashian, Kim's social media post couldn't be uploaded without causing some problems. The mother-of-three came under fire when the US Food and Drug Administration claimed that her post didn't didn't describe the potential risks—like an accelerated heartbeat, dilated pupils, confusion and drowsiness—that come along with taking Diclegis.
"By omitting the risks associated with Diclegis, the social media post misleadingly fails to provide material information about the consequences that may result from the use of the drug and suggests that it is safer than has been demonstrated," the FDA wrote in the memo to pharmaceutical company Duchesnay, adding that it could be dangerous to women with hyperemesis gravidarum since it hasn't been specifically tested on the condition.
Fortunately for the company that sells Diclegis, there's no such thing as bad publicity and sales of the medication went up by 21 per cent in the fall of 2015. In addition, after Kim's post, Duchesnay reportedly raised the price of Diclegis to $585 for a month’s supply. At the moment, it costs roughly $430. Duchesnay kept working with the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star on follow-up posts, yet it’s not clear how much she was paid for those.
Pretty crazy, right? The most I've got for an Insta post is a dozen likes and a comment from my mum about how lovely I look.
