Global pop stars, Russian oligarchs, celebrity writers, football players, members of the royal family or reality soap stars – our current culture is full of images and representations of the lifestyle of very affluent individuals – the super-rich. Although a very fuzzy category, the label of super-rich adheres to the so-called ‘ultra high net worth individuals’ (UHNWIs) with financial assets exceeding $30 million (Hay & Muller 2012).

The rise of social media, in particular, has brought representations of great wealth and the lifestyle of the super-rich to the centre of public attention. Adam Jaworski and Crispin Thurlow argue that the mediatization of this very affluent group is “mostly devoid of any serious discussion of political economy, upholds and normalizes their privilege by working in tandem with the logics of capital and the tenets of consumer culture” (2017). In fact, Great Britain has a special place in the topography of affluence, since, as Rowland Atkinson states, its capital London…

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