Celebrity Obsessions and Capitalization

So this past week has definitely sucked for celebrities with that whole death flu that’s going around and what not. Seems that old washed up singers and actors weren’t the only ones to be afflicted by it, but that it has mutated and attacked super pitchman and reality TV star Billy Mays. Does his death mean we’ll now see a company stepping up to capitalize on it and do some shameless promotion?

There will definitely be a rise in the Enjoy The Ride infomercial parodies that DC did last fall. Perhaps we’ll see a deluxe edition paying homage to the man that invaded television sets world wide slinging his $19.95 priced wares. Would that be in bad taste? The fact that the whole parody infomercials were done with that in mind, I’d safely say that it’s a proper honor to the man. Now if they were to reuse or do a new mix of these in the next few days it could be considered bad taste, although it looks like they had scheduled to do this long before Billy’s demise and we can bare witness to the extended version near the end of July.

Going along with the theory of bad taste is what some people claim NEFF did with these shirts.

Frankly I’ve always thought of NEFF as an unoriginal company that sells itself as being original. Basic concept of if we make people believe their original in having our stuff than we are original regardless if everyone wears it. Lou G over at Deserts Don’t Snow has his take on it.

Do I agree and feel they’re selling out snowboarding by capitalizing on this? I think they found a quick way to turn a profit and jumped on it, which shows some serious initiative on their part and I will never fault someone for finding a way to make money. But at the same time they’ll be another snowboard company that people that don’t snowboard will wear which in my opinion lends itself to the whole snowboarding has sold out theory.

Now if they are just about doing a quick capitalization will we see a silhouette of Billy on a t shirt with TV outline and a saying like King of Sales? Or perhaps it would be Billy’s face and say Smooth Talker! Yes the potential is ultimately there for someone to jump on the bandwagon and exploit the situation and if anyone uses my ideas just send me some a shirt.

The big thing is would we as snowboarders have cared if some other company had done this or even been remotely surprised? I doubt it but hey we live in a celebrity obsessed culture and that’s how things roll. What’s your take?

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