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My friend’s brother-in-law used this service a couple months ago for his engagement and wedding, and had a celebrity basically wish them congratulations on the

My friend’s brother-in-law used this service a couple months ago for his engagement and wedding, and had a celebrity basically wish them congratulations on the wedding and even mentioned the couple by name (I think you just give them a script of what to say, and they’ll record themselves doing it). The cool and maybe the natural part of it was that it didn’t look scripted. The celeb record themself on their own phone I believe, and sent it in the form of a video message. Something like Facebook live. When I saw the video message, it seemed very natural. I suppose for your friends who don’t know of this service, it’ll make it seem like you’re on personal terms with a celeb and you received a video from your “celeb friend” saying congrats. I definitely see a market for this service as it reaches the masses and grows. Birthdays, weddings, anniversary milestones, bar mitvahs, high school graduation. Imagine Lebron wishing your kid happy birthday. And all You had to do was pay $5000 and send a script for a 15-second video.

kevinmchugh 6y ago
The professionalism of the celebs varies widely. Some can turn a 50 word prompt into a four minute, fun, natural video, others read instructions verbatim or fail to read the instructions at all
- hckr_news 6y ago
  Yeah the couple’s video was about a minute long, and was quite a heartfelt message wishing them congrats and sending well wishes.
- BurningFrog 6y ago
  Candidate for least professional one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORpBAIB9j64 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORpBAIB9j64
  - gwbas1c 6y ago
    Oh, that's a hard video to do. Johnny Depp plays such deep characters that it often takes me until the middle of the movie before I realize it's him. What kind of character can he be to make a PSA?
- jedberg 6y ago
  Yeah, I've seen a few. Some just read your words staring straight into the camera and some have fun with it. The last one I saw, my friend said, "please wish my husband a happy father's day". She sent it to the actor who plays his favorite character on his favorite show. The actor turned that prompt into a 30 second in-character monologue that was just brilliant. It was totally worth the cost just for the entertainment value to both him and the rest of us (she shared it on Facebook for us).
pbhjpbhj 6y ago
What's the root cause of this pathological behaviour. Why is it impressive, to a large proportion of the population, rather than just sad and wasteful (as it appears to me). I mean I get that it's an [fake] indicator of social associations that could have high value, it's more why is that impressive as opposed to people actually acquiring value. Like a "demonstration of ability to pay" but with social credit. This seems like the social equivalent of when a brand becomes well known for having high-quality goods -- they then put their logo on lots-and-lots of super-low quality goods that people then buy to pretend they have high-quality goods. It all makes no sense to me. Is it something about audio-visual media that we can't use it for entertainment without our brains inadvertently treating characters as part of our social circles; then we fail at recognising actors as not being their characters; ...? Is everyone insane or is there something I'm missing.
- willcipriano 6y ago
  Another use case, for my daughters first birthday I had a Elmo impersonator (this guy was spot on, you could not tell the difference) make a video with a puppet for her. It was a private thing we shared together not something I publicly shared but her face lit up when "Elmo" said her name and wished her a happy birthday. It's weird to do this for yourself, however it makes a thoughtful gift under the right conditions.
- RobRivera 6y ago
  No one is insane for having different views and priorities
  - pbhjpbhj 6y ago
    If someone had a cardboard cutout of a piece of amazing new tech, that they were pretending was the real thing, would you think "ooh, nice supercomputer" (or whatever), or would you think "that's a bit insane"? I think convincing yourself a picture of a fridge full of food is as good as an actual fridge full of food is objectively a mental problem - and that this is somewhat an analogue of that.
    - 6y ago
homakov 6y ago
This is so cringeworthy though
rhizome 6y ago
The reason it looks natural is because it's new. If it gets popular, it'll be commodified and it'll be the same "radio station bumper" sound you've always heard. As your wedding DJs plays the Brad Pitt, "I heartily congratulate you on your celebration or achievement. Congratulations[static] Wanda and Billy" generic message they sit down once a month to hammer out 300 of.
- reedwolf 6y ago
  I guess it will be a mark of status among celebrities that one hasn't had to do this.
sizzle 6y ago
I rather run an open source AI algorithm to generate a celebrity's face and voice for free to deliver the message.
- hckr_news 6y ago
  Someone on here could probably whip something up like that on a weekend and start charging money. Those AI generated fake Obama videos as an example. Can’t imagine it’s too hard to make it say “Happy birthday so-and-so”. Although can already see the lawsuits if someone is making money off the likeness and image of a celeb without permission.
- ackbar03 6y ago
  I'm still waiting for someone to actually run this as a business. It seems like a pretty obvious use case I wonder why we haven't seen it yet
SquishyPanda23 6y ago
> Imagine Lebron wishing your kid happy birthday This makes sense if the service is relatively unknown on small. But if Lebron is mass-producing birthday wishes, and if everybody knows he's mass-producing birthday wishes, then wouldn't the coolness actor diminish somewhat?
- whoisjuan 6y ago
  Lebron would likely charge $2k or more per message so not everyone would have access to that.
  - julianeon 6y ago
    I don't think Lebron rolls out of bed in the morning for anything less than 10k. This is just beneath him, frankly. Think of it this way. To rake in 4 million, Lebron would need to do two thousand (!) Cameo videos, each costing $2,000. Or he could just sign on the dotted line for some hotel in Abu Dhabi that his agent brings him, show up at a shoot, agree to let them use his name and likeness, maybe show up at an event, and make that much in a week. And he can lock down the terms of the contract - he doesn't have to worry about 1 of those 2000 customers trying to get get $4,000,000 of endorsement value out of it. Past a certain point, this becomes a dumb deal. If you're A list there's not enough money, and too much reputational risk.
- jojobas 6y ago
  >This makes sense if the service is relatively unknown on small. Or does it? The kid wouldn't know Lebron had no idea he existed until he got the cash and the script, and would not remember the day after. An adult should. "We paid this guy to wish you a happy birthday". How awesome is that.

kevinmchugh 6y ago

The professionalism of the celebs varies widely. Some can turn a 50 word prompt into a four minute, fun, natural video, others read instructions verbatim or fail to read the instructions at all

hckr_news 6y ago
Yeah the couple’s video was about a minute long, and was quite a heartfelt message wishing them congrats and sending well wishes.
BurningFrog 6y ago
Candidate for least professional one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORpBAIB9j64 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORpBAIB9j64
- gwbas1c 6y ago
  Oh, that's a hard video to do. Johnny Depp plays such deep characters that it often takes me until the middle of the movie before I realize it's him. What kind of character can he be to make a PSA?
jedberg 6y ago
Yeah, I've seen a few. Some just read your words staring straight into the camera and some have fun with it. The last one I saw, my friend said, "please wish my husband a happy father's day". She sent it to the actor who plays his favorite character on his favorite show. The actor turned that prompt into a 30 second in-character monologue that was just brilliant. It was totally worth the cost just for the entertainment value to both him and the rest of us (she shared it on Facebook for us).

pbhjpbhj 6y ago

What's the root cause of this pathological behaviour. Why is it impressive, to a large proportion of the population, rather than just sad and wasteful (as it appears to me). I mean I get that it's an [fake] indicator of social associations that could have high value, it's more why is that impressive as opposed to people actually acquiring value. Like a "demonstration of ability to pay" but with social credit. This seems like the social equivalent of when a brand becomes well known for having high-quality goods -- they then put their logo on lots-and-lots of super-low quality goods that people then buy to pretend they have high-quality goods. It all makes no sense to me. Is it something about audio-visual media that we can't use it for entertainment without our brains inadvertently treating characters as part of our social circles; then we fail at recognising actors as not being their characters; ...? Is everyone insane or is there something I'm missing.

willcipriano 6y ago
Another use case, for my daughters first birthday I had a Elmo impersonator (this guy was spot on, you could not tell the difference) make a video with a puppet for her. It was a private thing we shared together not something I publicly shared but her face lit up when "Elmo" said her name and wished her a happy birthday. It's weird to do this for yourself, however it makes a thoughtful gift under the right conditions.
RobRivera 6y ago
No one is insane for having different views and priorities
- pbhjpbhj 6y ago
  If someone had a cardboard cutout of a piece of amazing new tech, that they were pretending was the real thing, would you think "ooh, nice supercomputer" (or whatever), or would you think "that's a bit insane"? I think convincing yourself a picture of a fridge full of food is as good as an actual fridge full of food is objectively a mental problem - and that this is somewhat an analogue of that.
  - 6y ago

homakov 6y ago

This is so cringeworthy though

rhizome 6y ago

The reason it looks natural is because it's new. If it gets popular, it'll be commodified and it'll be the same "radio station bumper" sound you've always heard. As your wedding DJs plays the Brad Pitt, "I heartily congratulate you on your celebration or achievement. Congratulations[static] Wanda and Billy" generic message they sit down once a month to hammer out 300 of.

reedwolf 6y ago
I guess it will be a mark of status among celebrities that one hasn't had to do this.

sizzle 6y ago

I rather run an open source AI algorithm to generate a celebrity's face and voice for free to deliver the message.

hckr_news 6y ago
Someone on here could probably whip something up like that on a weekend and start charging money. Those AI generated fake Obama videos as an example. Can’t imagine it’s too hard to make it say “Happy birthday so-and-so”. Although can already see the lawsuits if someone is making money off the likeness and image of a celeb without permission.
ackbar03 6y ago
I'm still waiting for someone to actually run this as a business. It seems like a pretty obvious use case I wonder why we haven't seen it yet

SquishyPanda23 6y ago

> Imagine Lebron wishing your kid happy birthday This makes sense if the service is relatively unknown on small. But if Lebron is mass-producing birthday wishes, and if everybody knows he's mass-producing birthday wishes, then wouldn't the coolness actor diminish somewhat?

whoisjuan 6y ago
Lebron would likely charge $2k or more per message so not everyone would have access to that.
- julianeon 6y ago
  I don't think Lebron rolls out of bed in the morning for anything less than 10k. This is just beneath him, frankly. Think of it this way. To rake in 4 million, Lebron would need to do two thousand (!) Cameo videos, each costing $2,000. Or he could just sign on the dotted line for some hotel in Abu Dhabi that his agent brings him, show up at a shoot, agree to let them use his name and likeness, maybe show up at an event, and make that much in a week. And he can lock down the terms of the contract - he doesn't have to worry about 1 of those 2000 customers trying to get get $4,000,000 of endorsement value out of it. Past a certain point, this becomes a dumb deal. If you're A list there's not enough money, and too much reputational risk.
jojobas 6y ago
>This makes sense if the service is relatively unknown on small. Or does it? The kid wouldn't know Lebron had no idea he existed until he got the cash and the script, and would not remember the day after. An adult should. "We paid this guy to wish you a happy birthday". How awesome is that.