Years ago I spotted a picture of Steven Tyler in a teen magazine with the following caption: “Steven Tyler, Liv Tyler's father, spotted backstage.” Granted, this was pre-American Idol days and his teen-magazine-reading audience was probably more limited than it is now, but I bet he still got a kick out of the fact that the editors felt he was not recognizable enough on his own.
Today while making a quick run down the cleaning product aisle of the grocery store, I saw two separate cardboard cutouts of infomercial personalities with their names printed on the signs, devoid of any kind of qualifier. Not even an “As seen on TV” distinction. So I had to wonder: are infomercial stars now so famous that they are instantly recognized by name? Is it really possible that more people know who Anthony Sullivan is than Steven Tyler? I have long been under the impression that infomercials were where bad actors went to die. Not so. Apparently, this is a career goal. Once again, my Guidance Counselor missed the boat on this one.
Remember the days when cardboard cutouts were something you sought to have in your dorm room? It used to be that the honor of your image being rendered on a 2-dimensional life-sized stand-up was reserved for attractive movie stars, hunky athletes, and anonymous bikini-clad women. I'm not waxing nostalgic for a six foot tall woman in a bikini per se, I'm just saying that cardboard cutout images should be worthy of theft by rogue frat boys and drunken co-eds. And under no circumstance should they feature a mop.
When Billy Mays died, I remember thinking that it was odd how famous he was. But then, he was in an awful lot of commercials. And besides, everyone who is even slightly famous gets more famous when they die. But then the Shamwow guy (I don't know his name, but I'm sure plenty of you do) got arrested, and everyone knew about it. Suddenly infomercial personality was a category of fame. And now this cardboard cutout nonsense. Scavenger hunts will never be the same again.
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