Friday, January 11, 2008

It's all in the name

Every single celebrity in the world has a "line" now. For some, it's a line of coke. For others, it's a line of kitchen utensils, clothing, perfume, lotion, ice cream, sneakers, heels, dolls, you name it, there's a celebrity line of it.

It's gone beyond the "Air Jordan" sneakers...but that was probably the real start of this.

It used to be that people who actually knew something about the product or product line were behind the line. They themselves actually studied, analyzed, researched, earned degrees in whatever it was they were making and selling with their name on it. Now, you just have to have the name flashy enough to have your own line. And you go to "your" testing facility twice before the unveiling to make sure that you can actually tolerate the smell or taste or look enough to wear/eat/hold your own product in a commercial.

It also used to be that a celebrity line was not high quality. It was in K-Mart or WalMart only, and it was a cheap version of other stuff that was supposed to look really nice and like you had paid $200 instead of $20.97...until 3 months later when it had faded/cracked/broken/been lost. Suitable for "real people" I guess. Now celebrity lines are "higher end" and many a celebrity line is affordable only to other celebrities.

Which is funny to me...to think of Christina Aguilara wearing Jessica Simpson shoes. Or Regis Philben wearing Donald Trump ties.

Macy's has an ad out called the "Magic of Macy's - Morning" that really emphasizes the extreme to which celebrity lines have invaded their store. I don't think that they are trying to put this at a level of absurdity in the commercial, but they unintentionally succeed in doing so. One brand strategy consultant opines that it's "...an effective use of the talents presented."



Personally, I take the opposing view. I think that it makes Macy's look like a NASCAR telecast minus the giant italic numbers on everything. But perhaps with the more upscale market NASCAR seems to be looking for, what with pretty much eliminating their presence from network TV and jumping straight to cable-only broadcasts for the majority of the season, that may be a match made in heaven.

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