A-5-1 OMG!!! The big 4-0!!!

This must be a big year for celebrities turning 40. I know that every year has celebrities turning 40, but for some reason this year must have a particularly intriguing group hitting the big 4-0. Now, I would expect to see this type of information in the latest edition of In Touch or Star magazine, but media outlets from CBS4 in Denver to the Chicago Tribune want to make sure you know which of your favorite celebs will be reaching this milestone in 2009. The interesting thing is that stories like this are becoming mainstream news. I guess we as a society must be fascinated with how celebrities age.

I heard a story on TV this week that caught my ear. It was an entertainment show talking about how Jennifer Aniston will be turning 40 next week. I wasn’t watching the TV, but I stopped for a moment to see how she looked and I have to admit, she looks fabulous! She joins Rene Zellweger, Jennifer Lopez, Gwen Stefani, Ellen Pompeo, and Christy Turlington (cbs11.com) to name a few of the more widely-known females. I’m sure having the funds to support personal trainers, personal chefs, stylists, and make-up artists, all help, but this group certainly seems to be aging extremely well. For a brief moment I thought of my sister-in-law who turned 40 last year and I did a mental comparison of the two. Then I realized how ridiculous that was!

It’s not just the women either. According to the Chicago Tribune (2009) Marc Anthony, Paul Rudd, Josh Holloway, Jack Black, and Jay-Z all hit the big 4-0 as well this year. I thought Marc Anthony was older, but the rest seem a lot younger than 40. Maybe as I get older I get more attuned to the people aging around me. I have to admit that I couldn’t name anyone turning 21 this year, but as far as the list of people turning 40, I feel like I’ve been inundated with it. It seems to be a leading news story when someone famous hits an aging milestone. If you thought you were sick of the Jennifer Aniston birthday news, watch out….according to cbs11.com, Mariah Carey turns 40 on March 27…then J. Lo, Christian Slater, Matthew Perry, Jason Priestly, Tyler Perry, Matthew McConaughey, and so on. As long as there are celebrities, there will be people interested in watching those celebrities age.


References
Chicago Tribute Photo Gallery (2009). Retrieved February 6, 2009, from http://redeye.chicagotribune.com/hc-celebsturning40-pg,0,4002123.photogallery

Dallas / Fort Worth CBS11 Slideshows (2009). Celebrities turning 40 in 2009. Retrieved February 6, 2009, from http://cbs11tv.com/slideshows/Celebrities.40.2009.20.900973.html

Images
Star Magazine (2009). Retrieved February 7, 2009, from
http://www.star-magazine.co.uk/dynamic/2/451x567/6470_1

A-4-1 Snuggies are all the Rage!

If you watched CNN this week, or read the USA Today, you saw the emergence of a pop culture phenomenon called the Snuggie. Marketed as a blanket with sleeves, it looks more like a baby’s layette created for adults. While my family laughed at the commercials with people unable to get their arms out of a regular blanket to answer the phone, people were buying them by the millions. According to USA Today’s Maria Puente (2009) Snuggie has sold over 4 million blankets and they’re showing up on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Jay Leno, and Ellen. In fact, the item that Jay Leno referred to as the “lard ass quilt” (Puente, 2009) is gaining popularity among young and old alike.

Websites like snuggiesightings.com (2009) show people of all ages doing everything from ice skating to laying on the beach in their Snuggie. There are numerous photos of people doing everyday tasks in their Snuggies, including eating out, shopping, and of course drinking. In fact, you’d have to be drinking to buy one of these. I don’t care how cold it is in your house. Why can’t you use a blanket you already have? I know, I know…the price is hard to beat….$19.95 for two, plus they throw in a free book light. But as Jay Leno says, “Why can’t you just put your robe on backwards?” (GMA, 2009). I guess it’s too much of a bargain for some people to pass on.

Regardless, Allstar Marketing Group must be laughing all the way to the bank. The viral marketing buzz has pulled in lovers and haters of the product alike. Lovers of the product are buying it by the millions to keep warm during a time when poor economic conditions are forcing people to cut back on their heating and energy usage. Haters of the product are contributing to the pop culture success by purchasing the product to use in their blog postings and YouTube videos.

This past week alone showed hosts from Good Morning America and CNN wearing Snuggies as they discussed the unexpected success of the product. Sports Illustrated got an early jump on the bandwagon last October when they aired the Snuggie commercial on their Extra Mustard ‘Hot Clicks’ site (2008). Viewers weighed in with comments like “it looks like a KKK robe”, “anyone wearing this looks like they’d belong to a creepy cult”, and my favorite “I don’t own a Snuggie, but I do have something similar. It’s called a coat.”

References
Good Morning America (2009). The Snuggie: the blanket with sleeves. Retrieved, February 1, 2009, from http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Weekend/Story?id=6716994&page=2

Puente, M. (2009, January 27). Snuggie gets a warm embrace from pop culture. Retrieved February 1, 2009, from http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2009-01-27-snuggie_N.htm?se=yahoorefer

Sports Illustrated Extra Mustard (2008). Readers weigh in on the Snuggie. Retrieved February 1, 2009, from http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/extramustard/10/22/snuggie-email/index.html

Images
Good Morning America (2009). Retrieved February 1, 2009, from http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Weekend/Story?id=6716994&page=2