Celebrities and BJDs: Good Publicity or Bad Publicity, or It Depends?

I would just be irritated if people all the sudden thought I was "copying" paris hilton or some other starlet.
"Oh you have a doll like paris hilton!"
"No... paris hilton has a doll like ME"

lol

 

Personally, i find it a bit silly, when people say that something is just too mainstream, or could become too mainstream for them. To me, it's still deciding wether you will allow yourself to be involved, but solely based on it's popularity. Neither make sense to me.
The popularity of something should really have nothing to do with your decision to involve yourself in it. Especially with BJD's. If i were the only person i knew who was into this hobby, and i never saw anyone who had it, it wouldn't affect me in the least in my decision to collect, but neither would seeing that everyone, adults and children alike, are into it.

Now onto the exact topic: Personally, I do think it could potentially affect the hobby in a negative light, if say some creepy, crazed celebrity who was drug addicted, and had mental issues were into collecting BJD's. But if someone respected, artistic, and intelligent collected them and let that be known, i cannot possibly see any negative reprocussions, as long as when they talked about them, they remained respectful, and intelligent. It's the difference of Britney Spears collecting BJD, (As much as i do like her) and Marie Osmond collecting BJD.

Someone the public percieves as weird, drug addicted, sick, or mentally unstable is not going to leave a posotive image in the public eye regarding BJD. It's going to automatically become "OMG, you have one of those creepy dolls that Britney collects!!! The illness spreads!!" LOL

(Just using Britney as an example, no offense to those who love her...i use her because she has had some seriously negative publicity in the past few years. I'm not saying wether it's true or not true.)

 

To me it seems BJD have been under the radar of the jet set or starlet world because in all the interviews of the so called famous never seen an interviewer hold up a DIM Minimee and say, they hold up and say, "So did you see a group of 10 people get 10 heads of your likeness to make dolls that they can dress to look like you or as this person you played in a TV show or movie." No it's usually a Barbie like doll and so I seriously doubt if a celeb will carry a BJD. If they collect them, it's the one secret they can keep out of the tabloids.

 

I'm sure there are celebs that collect BJDs. There are certainly those with Barbie or Porcelain doll collections...Mercedes Lackey collects various kinds of dolls and customizes them to look like her book characters for instance. I realize that this does not count as mainstream at all, but the point I'm making is that the celebs collecting are already out there. We just don't know about it.

In the scenario of a celeb jump-starting a fad, there isn't much that can be done other than live with it. It's kind of like clothes...there were people who were dressing goth or punk long before Hot Topic made it easier to buy pants with extra chains and zippers.

Mostly O/T- Marie Osmond would probably have her own line of BJDs....which honestly scares me more than anything else. But that's just me.

 

The type of publicity would depend, I would think, on the celebrity. However, I don't really see this happening as dolls just aren't considered cool. I'm sure if some celebrity started toting one around they would probably be poked fun at by the various entertainment shows and magazines. There may be some folks who can pull it off, but they're probably few and far between. I could see a doll being used in a video, and it's happened in the past with Kerli I think her name was? Or as simply a collectible that they might have but not make a fuss about. But as some kind of fashion accessory, nah, don't see it happening.

Hypothetically if it did happen, it wouldn't change the way I feel about my dolls or the enjoyment I get from them. I don't care if they're mainstream or if no one at all has heard of them. I'm in this hobby to please myself, and that has nothing to do with what other people might or might not be doing.

 

The thing that a lot of people aren't thinking of, as far as the price issue goes, is that when things become 'popular', knockoffs follow very quickly. Granted, it's a lot more difficult to cheaply recreate these dolls, and it's not the name brand that makes them so popular. But if people pay hundreds of dollars for something as frivolous as a tiny handbag that only holds a cellphone, I don't think paying that much for a doll is far-fetched.

As far as whether it's good or bad, there are pros and cons to everything. The pros would of course be that there would be more of a variety for consumers. More clothes and accessories available at closer places. The cons are obvious. Negative attention and unwanted fad hobbyists.

Do I think it would happen? Well, I've heard of stranger things... It's happened to me before with other interests. You just have to learn to take the good with the bad.

 

If it became a fad, it would be that. A fad. Remember when everyone had Pokemon stuff out the wazoo? Or the fad with those ugly sequined handbags... and crocs... I hate crocs...

But they'd spike in popularity and then slowly ebb "out" as they lost their "in" factor, leaving only the people that really like to dolls to, well, like the dolls. xD

 

People have become sort of conditioned to think it normal to pay a lot for a cell phone or designer bag or shoes. Paying a lot for a doll isn't something that most people are used to, because non doll folks tend to equate dolls with children's toys. It's amazing how much money people pay for more mainstream frivolous stuff, but when faced with anything outside of their interests/comfort zone/whatever it's immediately over priced and not worth the money. Plus anything made too cheaply won't have enough in common with our own dolls to really effect the hobby -- they'll become something else entirely at that point.

While I suppose it's still in the realm of possibility, I don't find it very probable at all -- I think people in the hobby tend to forget just what a small niche hobby it is.

 

I haven't quite gotten through the entire thread yet, but I do want to comment on this. I am hoping to be published in the future (the book is in that stage where a fearless beta is tearing it apart while I scream in horror and make changes) and when I am I do still plan to have my BJDs as a central part of my writing career. After all, they were the inspiration for the story.

Without Carmine and Thomas, there would be no Chasing Miracles (or Chasing Trilogy). And I plan on explaining that when people ask "so, where did the story come from". And I plan on sending pictures or having them to show to people in person if need be.

So yes, I would still go out with my little ones. I've always been "that crazy girl with those creepy dolls" and I don't intend on changing just because I wrote a book! XD

 

I had to look up the videos with Kerli because I actually hadn't heard of her, but I think it's kinda awesome that she used dolls in her videos. I'll have to agree with many others here in saying it's unlikely that this will ever become a fad simply because of the cost and time involved (unless we would get the cheap knockoff and copycat problems) but even if it did I don't think I'd think much about it. It might even be cool to see some celebrities have them, like Voltaire carrying around a BJD of one of his comic characters, that would be great IMO. The point is whether or not this would spark too many news reports similar to the one mentioned before, where owners are portrayed very negatively, because if that was the case, I would be a little angry about it.

 

I just thought of this. I would be afraid of a spike in doll theft. If they got popular, more people would know their cost, and they could possibly become targeted items.

 

First of all, I look forward to seeing you published. I'm an aspiring writer myself and that is exciting to me ^^
This is exactly the point I was trying to get accrossed. I mean, what if you became the next J.K. Rowling and millions of people started following you and your every move. No doubt there would be obsessive fans that would like the idea of how the story came to be, and therefore perhaps would want a "Carmine or Thomas". It of course wouldn't be the same to collectors like us, but to a newcommer who was following a fad or wanted to prove themselves as a fan; a doll is a doll.

L Mikia- that is also an interesting point. That would be absolutely terrible if you were walking down the street and someone went "OMG A KERLI DOLL" and snatched it and ran O_O;

 

well i dont have much to say but i would be afraid of the haters. When the ps3 came out i heard of random idiot just buying one and breaking it with a bat. And even though it those idiots just wasting money i would feel mad, pissed, and depressed that some idiot who spended 600 bucks on a doll is breaking such doll just for the heck of it. Also the fact that dolls have visual from the outsied genitalia [sorry have no idea what to call it cuz girls dont have acctual viginas just the outside and well same goes for guy] i have mannny friends and people asking me iof i can piull my boy's pants down to his he's penis and i'm like go away! and i personally dont think people are ready for that XD with their level of maturity. and i am sorry buti forgot who metioned stealing dolls because of their popularity and cost. but yes i can totally see that happpening! and also the prices of them might increase if they do become more popular that's how economics work!

 

Iiiiiiiiiiiii.... don't understand why people are concerned about diminished quality in the case of a "spike in interest".

The reputable companies have shown they would rather make paying customers wait longer to receive a doll that is up to their standards rather than rush & send out an inferior product.

It's most likely that knockoffs & cheaper "BJD's" would start to show up, but then people who are truly interested in the dolls as more than a fad would still tend to gravitate to the higher-quality dolls, while "fad-chasers" would keep the producers of thin-walled, hollow vinyl dolls (as I imagine they'd be) in business for as long as the "fad" was around.

 

I don’t see anything wrong with ABJD going "mainstream" I think if they did they would become more affordable and easier to obtain also I think socially it would become acceptable. and with this stigma of the crazy creepy cat lady who collects dolls actually isn't something I would want to keep around.... I think I'd rather have Paris Hilton walking around with dollies if it made more people understand what these things are and made it look "normal" for people to collect them
Plus there is nothing wrong with wanting more people to enjoy them. Didn’t we all learn how to share in kindergarten?

 

Oh, this this!
I agree

 

I don't think anything much would really come from a grown up celeb being interested in the dolls here. Lady Gaga's the only celeb I can imagine bringing one to anything important, but then again it might draw attention away from her outfits. Now if, say, Suri Cruise or any of the the Jolie-Pitt crew were toting them around? I can see that getting people interested.

 

We discussed something like this in another thread, if you want to see what was said about BJDs becoming cool: http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php?305246-How-known-is-TOO-known

And I think I saw that the author Mercedes Lackey is a BJD collector and a member of this forum.

 

Ewww If Kim K or either of her beast sisters, Lindsay Lohan, Miley Cyrus or Paris Hilton was toting around a doll I had I would sell it right away for the money.

 

Actually there is a series of famous books with Obitsu dolls as the cover dolls. (The Pretty Little Liars dolls, they're Obitsu's but with their joints edited out)