About this Blog

"In the future everybody will be world-famous for 15 minutes." So said the bleached-out, late lamented artist Andy Warhol. Having lived and worked in New York City, Warhol came to fully grasp the hold celebrity has on us. In this very famous sentence, he meant to point out that in a culture fixated on fame, many people will suddenly flash brightly onto the public screen, then--poof--will just as quickly disappear from public view--like shooting stars. Other individuals derive their celebrity from one stellar accomplishment (one hit song, one iconic role, etc.) that they never again match.

This blog is devoted to the one part of our celebrity culture that no one has written much about: temporary/one-shot celebrities.

The pace of modern life has quickened, and now we hear people speaking of someone's 15 seconds of fame. These "celebrities with a lower-case c" who will appear in this blog sometimes come to us from the world of entertainment, sometimes from the world of news. All are fascinating.

The need of our communications media for a continual stream of new material assures that we will have no end of colorful people who go quickly, where celebrity is concerned, from zero to hero (or villain) and back to zero. Now you see 'em, now you don't. What a crazy world, eh?

Temporary celebrities coming from the world of entertainment include one-hit recording artists; TV and movie icons who, although they might have had a great many accomplishments in their career, are remembered for one big role; standouts of reality TV; sports figures remembered for one remarkable accomplishment; and people whose celebrity came from one big role in a commercial or print ad.

News-based temporary celebrities come in many forms: mass/serial killers, other murderers of special note, sex-crime offenders, disgraced figures of government/military/business/media/religion, spies/traitors, hoaxers, femmes/hommes fatale, heroes, whistle blowers, inventors/innovators, and victims.

Celebrity Blogsburg will consider each category in turn.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Advertising icons Jayne & Joan Boyd

Doublemint chewing gum has made use of a play on words in its advertising by linking the "Double" in "Doublemint" to sets of twins.

The first twins to front regularly for the famous brand of gum were the Boyd twins, Jayne and Joan. From 1959 to 1963, these sweet, girl-next-door types from Indiana urged America (and much of the rest of the world) to double our pleasure, double our fun by chomping away on this brand of gum.

When Joan was about to become a mom, the company changed twins. Since then, several sets of twins have held this position: the Barnstables, the Daniels, the Kramers, and the first African-Aemrican Doublemint wins, Sharon Sansaverino and Sheryl Valenti.

Over the years, the twins chosen for this purpose became more glamorous. The high point of this new glamor came with Cyb and Tricia, the curvaceous, Playboy-posing Barnstable twins, who looked as if they could easily double anybody's fun.

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