10 ms·

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 a

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.
  - fragmede 6y ago
    Is it? I don't think it is. Disregarding crazed celebrity stalkers (which, to be clear, do exist but they are outliers), no one is going to be gifted a 60-second video/audio clip from their favorite celebrity, and actually believe that the celebrity knows who they are. It's a cute gift from a loved one (parent/sibling/partner/close-friend) who is observant enough to know you like a particular celebrity. To use your analogy, this is a 10-cm tall miniature model Cray X-MP supercomputer that has blinking LEDs thats powered by 2 AA batteries and sits on your desk that a parent/sibling/partner/close-friend got for you because it's your favorite supercomputer. It's a bit nerdy to have as a desk ornament and some may judge you unfairly on, but if I went off on a rant about how that's a stupid model, it probably can't do any math, and that you're insane for having it... that rant would reflect more poorly on me than on the owner of the model. (If you know somebody that has that level of problems with a picture of a fridge, please get them help.)
    - pbhjpbhj 6y ago
      >if I went off on a rant about how that's a stupid model, it probably can't do any math, and that you're insane for having it... that rant would reflect more poorly on me than on the owner of the model. // Touché :) But, presumably you're not going "hey have you seen my supercomputer" and showing people a picture of your blinken-light toy on social media? The relationship people assume to have with celebrities, actors in particular, seems different to that they share with mementos/trinkets. At no point does the person think the Cray is the real thing, but people do seem to think - at some level - they know an actor because they've seen the character the actor helps to construct on screen. Everyone (adult) knows a person paid for the video with the Happy Birthday greeting, but still at some level there's social credit, which suggests we choose to accept the lie. I like your analogy, and will reflect on it some more (thanks!), but at the moment it still feels like there are fundamental differences between these situations (and that's where the interest lies).
- new2628 6y ago
  Really, no one? that's a bold claim.
cameronlpm 6y ago
I think I'm seeing it through the same lens as you. I'm really fascinated by the social phenomena of celebrity. Are you aware of any good papers or resources that explore the psychology of this?
jedberg 6y ago
Celebrities elicit an emotional response, similar to going to a place that has meaning to you. If you've spent twenty hours watching that person's work, and seeing them reminds you of the joy you had watching them, it makes sense that seeing them say your name would elicit a greater response.
- pbhjpbhj 6y ago
  Thanks, but I don't really grok the analogy - does anyone have as their special place a fictional place created on a film lot by landscapers and set designers. It all makes people happy, and I'm definitely for that, but it's a lie built on a lie - living vicariously through celebrities, and constructing lies in which we choose to rest our notions of self-worth .. I don't know about that. Now, excuse me whilst I go tell my children that Jedberg responded to me online ;o)
  - jedberg 6y ago
    It's not an analogy. It's just psychology. Your brain is wired to activate areas that are attached to each other. A smell from your childhood evokes a physical response in the brain that makes you happy (or sad, depending on the childhood). It's the same with a celebrity. You physically feel good when you see that celebrity because in the past you felt good when you saw that celebrity.
aabeshou 6y ago
> Is everyone insane or is there something I'm missing. in a sense, much of the world is insane because they pursue narcissistic types of social status. but I also do think this is just fun - putting aside the idea of getting a cameo as a status symbol, it's just fun to get a message from some public figure whose work you admire.
- _curious_ 6y ago
  Status symbol? Maybe for highschoolers, but if someone showed me this IRL, as an adult, and actually paid real money for such platitudes I would question their maturity level. What an exploitative model.
  - aabeshou 6y ago
    yeah I would feel sad for someone who's not rich who paid thousands for a shoutout from someone
    - ummonk 6y ago
      It's nowhere near thousands. It's usually like a hundred bucks. E.g. I've had friends do one from Chris Hansen as a joke for a large age-gap couple in our group, for the cost of $50.
      - aabeshou 6y ago
        thats genuinely hilarious, money well spent
jrvarela56 6y ago
We are primates guided by emotions. Our brain responds to incentives similar to those of other living beings (checkout mammals and other monkeys). Our consciousness is freeing itself from this situation via computers. The transition seems weird but digital systems are just implementing tricks we've been playing on each other for millenia. It's just weird when you see Black Mirror type of stuff.
smt88 6y ago
> Is everyone insane or is there something I'm missing. You're missing something. They're not insane, and neither are you. Imagine you've loved a certain musician your entire life and you could pay them to sing a song with your name in it. Or, imagine you and your spouse saw a certain movie on your first date, and you think it would be funny and thoughtful to have one of the actors (or characters) from that movie wish your spouse a happy birthday. Or, imagine you have followed a sports team for years and have the opportunity to talk to one of the stars. There is nothing strange or new about celebrity. Touching fame is interesting and exciting to people. There are celebrities who are genuinely meaningful to people -- maybe their work helped get through a tough time. You don't have to understand it, but it's not hurting anyone, so there's nothing insane about it. It's just a form of personalized entertainment.
- haram_masala 6y ago
  Just about the very last thing I would do to a musician whom I admire would be to debase them like that.
  - pedalpete 6y ago
    I feel like this is the point that gets missed. For these people that are famous for a skill or craft, Cameo turns them into an Organ Grinder Monkey. Obviously if the celeb is doing it, nobody is forcing them, but the whole thing just feels so cheap and degrading. Who ever would have thought you'd say "I'll pay you $500 to wish me a happy birthday"
    - gdilla 6y ago
      They choose to be on Cameo to do it. So who cares? They make it worth their time. LeBron might do it for say $50,000 and say that all of it goes to charity. That sounds good to me.
    - hammock 6y ago
      All of these celebrities regularly take appearance fees to show up at nightclubs, bar mitzvahs, birthday parties, etc. It's extremely common. You don't hear about most of them because they're private events.
akiselev 6y ago
I wouldn't pay $5,000 for a celebrity message but I paid $50 for an actor who played a minor Game of Thrones character for a birthday message for my dad (a GoT fan) that will be delivered along with a 3D printed brass polished Hand of the King pin. It's just a really fun way to create a personalized gift for someone close to me, which is important because I have a really hard time coming up with meaningful gifts - it's usually just easier to throw money at it, and the personalized celebrity message is more meaningful with the same amount of effort. The specific service I used sends the money to the charity of the celebrity's choice (which they display before you buy) and no one will see the message except my family. I think the wedding example is just a little more public than how people normally use these things. This is the first time I've heard of them charging four figures but no surprise.
- Icathian 6y ago
  Would you mind naming the service you use? I struggle to think of good gifts in the post-stuff era and that sounds like a nice one to add to my toolbox.
  - akiselev 6y ago
    I used https://www.celebvm.com/ https://www.celebvm.com/
    - bdcravens 6y ago
      At a glance, quite a few of the celebrities on this site are also on Cameo.
waterbadger 6y ago
If you Google “parasocial relationships” you might find some interesting content.
- izzydata 6y ago
  I've brought this term up a handful of times before, but nobody I know personally feels the same way I do about this. I find this kind of thing incredibly strange, but it is just the norm for so many people. Celebrity culture just makes no sense to me. They were in a movie and are now rich so now I have to care what they have for breakfast? It just seems so backward.
  - waterbadger 6y ago
    I think the idea is that the way we are wired it’s a pretty natural thing that happens when we are exposed to depictions of other people (real or fictional). One thing I read also suggested that the content we get from media figures is very conducive to this kind of bonding because they often share very intimate facts about themselves, they establish reciprocal relationships with their audience where the audience likes/subscribes, buys merch, etc. Might be kind of like dopamine and variable reward cycles where technology is able to hijack a response that came to into existence in a very different environment. So far most of what I’ve read indicates that parasocial relationships are viewed as benign or positive by mental health specialists because they can genuinely supply some of the social needs people have and contribute to positive personal resiliency, stuff like that. Very interesting and weird and probably only more relevant as time goes on.
AndrewKemendo 6y ago
Humans are wired for reinforcing social hierarchies by proximity and repetition - to confer "status" via all sorts of methods which may or may not be grounded in anything "tangible" to health, longevity or knowledge. Media and Celebrity in general hack this system for profit. The root cause of all pathological behavior is your brain. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2430590/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2430590/
master-litty 6y ago
People tend to make negative associations with poverty. To survive in social circles, we tend to mask such negative associations -- Because sometimes it does have genuine negative consequence, regardless if it is fair or logical. It comes from the same idea that certain topics aren't appropriate to discuss on first dates, with your extended family, with children present, etc. So to guarantee social survivability, in this mindset, you must offer something that creates a positive association. Lying is a risky way to create that association. It's social cheating, in a way. If you're convincing enough, your lie might as well be real, as far as your relationships are concerned, and you gain the social benefits of that; Intrigue, mystery, perceived power. But if you get caught, you are labelled as someone who will lie for these benefits. Many of us can look at these consequences and say it isn't worth it -- Some of us look at those same consequences and say it is worth it. This doesn't make sense to you because you perceive the consequences as the former, not the latter.
GaryNumanVevo 6y ago
Personalization of consumption is the final frontier for consumerist capitalist culture.
- pbhjpbhj 6y ago
  I certainly see that deepfakes will take us to a place where we can "choose the actors" to be compiled in to a film. But that strikes me as potentially being the death of celebrity actors. If an actor's contribution can be downplayed in that way, then the actor's person becomes relatively unimportant. More akin to a puppeteer, still a vital role but the puppet takes the limelight somewhat. I'm not sure Hollywood will choose this direction, it goes against their financial benefit I feel.
packetslave 6y ago
An anecdote: a good friend of mine just found out she's pregnant with her first child. She's a huge Harry Potter fan, and her favorite characters are the Weasley Twins. For not-all-that-much money, I was able to get James and Oliver Phelps (the actors who played the twins in all 8 movies) to each record a separate video message (about 1 minute each) wishing her congratulations by name and wishing her and her baby well. I made the two Cameo requests on a Friday night, and had both videos by Sunday morning. Both were warm, friendly, and seemed to be genuine and happy for her (obviously to the extent that they know her: "name is X, first-time mom, huge fan". She was absolutely over-the-moon happy about receiving them.
- vharuck 6y ago
  This and other responses show where this service shines: as a gift to others. It's only sad if there's deception for money.
  - citizenkeen 6y ago
    I think the key thing is knowing the "deep cuts" of your friend's fandom. You can get a lot of minor actors (one of whom is surely a recurring character on your partner's favorite under-appreciated TV show) for cheap.
  - foofoo55 6y ago
    But is it not deception (to ourselves) to believe that these celebrities somehow acknowledge and maybe even like us, when they required money to do so? (Never mind the concept of someone becoming more special than others by being good at pretending to be not themselves.) I realize I sound grumpy to many people but the whole thing seems like such a sham.
    - FreeFull 6y ago
      The thing is, without some sort of barrier, they would be completely swamped by the public trying to get them to record these, and then would be practically forced to stop doing it.
balls187 6y ago
> Why is it impressive, to a large proportion of the population, rather than just sad and wasteful (as it appears to me). Don't underestimate the power of nostalgia on humans, which triggers the release of endorphins which targets the pleasure center of the brain. There are so many dimensions a service like this can be used in powerful (and postive) ways. My father turns 73 next week how great would it be for me to send him a personalized recording of song from a famous Tamil musician? That would be $50 better spent than the $50 wireless food thermometer I got him instead. Or for my soon to be 5 year old son, have one of the voice actors from his favorite tv shows, record him a personalized birthday greeting? Better than $50 worth of toys that he will forget about in a years time.
ChainOfFools 6y ago
> 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. I can't quite put my finger on why, but this suggests an alternate form of IPO is being reinvented, where the currency of issue was branded social capital, and actual cash is a kind of leveraged instrument instead of the primary medium of exchange. I also feel like this might be a well known pattern in behavioral economics and I just don't know the proper name for it.
- WalterBright 6y ago
  "social proof" is what you're looking for.
eyerony 6y ago
> Is everyone insane or is there something I'm missing. Difference in taste based on class-related norms & values, mostly, is what I'd say you're missing. Can make a thing really impressive/desirable to one group of people, and simultaneously gauche/disgusting to another.
chrisseaton 6y ago
> Is everyone insane or is there something I'm missing. Different people have different tastes. Relax and let them enjoy what they enjoy.
majormajor 6y ago
Comments like this often appear to be the exact sort of status-seeking they claim to hate. "I don't even own a TV," etc. I really don't think the logical leap between "people like [person]" to "people think it's cute to pay a couple hundred bucks to get a unique message for someone from them." And then if you want to get into "but some people spend thousands..." - then we're still just criticizing the extremes of the market, and not so much the concept. Like making a show of freaking out about the fact that some people pay $LOTS for a bottle of alcohol, vs the person who claims they can't understand why others would enjoy alcohol in the first place.
- newbie789 6y ago
  I can't speak for the commentor that you're replying to, but I also found the whole "only $5,000" point to be a hard to identify with. I've personally never had $5,000 at one time in my entire life, let alone $5,000 to spend on a short video. For me (and quite a few people that I know) that would literally be life changing money, so it's difficult to grasp. I don't personally think the commentor was "making a show" with his question. In fact, if expressing opinions on this topic counts as "status seeking", wouldn't your defense of this business model count as the exact same thing you're decrying? By my understanding of what you've just said, (paraphrasing here) "I can't imagine spending money on this" seeks to establish a status, but "I do not have a problem with people spending money on this" does not seek to establish a status. The way I read it, if "status-seeking" is at issue, the main difference is between the status you attempt to seek vs the status you perceive the other person to be seeking, not an indictment of the practice as a whole. Edit: typo
  - hckr_news 6y ago
    That was a bit of joke on my part with the 5k dollars. But who knows, people might just be willing to pay that if it makes their spouse/child/parent a little bit more happier or give them some memory they’ll cherish. But rates on the app range depending on the status of the celeb, and the lowest I believe is 25-30 dollars.
- themacguffinman 6y ago
standardUser 6y ago
If you have tons of money and aren't obsessive about your spending, then this is a fun and funny way to spend some cash and entertain your friends. If you're taking out loans and piling up credit card debt so the Soup Nazi can wish you a scripted "happy birthday", you may have a problem. It reminds me of the episode of Community where Abed kept compulsively hiring celebrity look-a-likes for his own entertainment. EDIT: After browsing the site, I totally see the appeal. Most of the actors cost around $100 or less and there are pages full of familiar faces, including some personal favorites. There is a 50% chance I end up buying this as a gift for someone!
lancesells 6y ago
This is an easy and somewhat scalable way for celebrities to provide a virtual "meet & greet" experience. It's like people who go to a comic-con and pay for autographs and a picture of their favorite star. This is probably going to take off even more in the Covid era.
- pbhjpbhj 6y ago
  Yes, I see how it works, I question really whether it's healthy. People will even get a picture with a celebrity lookalike, which is like a third-level lie. Then other people are a little "impressed" (or that might be the fourth level of lie). It's all v. strange to me.
narrator 6y ago
I never got celebrity stuff either. I mean I guess I think Elon Musk is really cool, but I still realize he's a person and wouldn't want him to record a birthday greeting for me. So somebody I think is a good actor, like Keanu Reeves says "Happy Birthday, Narrator!" in a video. All I can think of is "How much did he get paid or that?" A normal person sees Keanu and they recall how cool he was in The Matrix, the emotions of admiration overwhelm them and "Happy Birthday, Normal Person!" overwhelms them with joy. Is this what happens, Normal People? I guess we just have a different psychological makeup than most people. It's probably that emotions don't easily transfer from other people, especially in recorded media. It's probably evolutionary to prevent a few mutants from going along with the crowd.
cortesoft 6y ago
I am curious what you think is valuable use of spending money... I am sure whatever you say, I could describe it in such a way that it sounds vacuous and wasteful. Instead of focusing on why you think it is ridiculous, maybe try to think of why it wouldn't be. You might understand others better.
mundo 6y ago
> What's the root cause of this pathological behaviour Our monkey brains are hardwired to think that it's vitally important to keep track of what the high status monkeys are doing?
swyx 6y ago
I'm with you. poor(er) people paying rich(er) celebs for the satisfaction of getting a 30 second shoutout sounds extremely dystopian.
bubblethink 6y ago
>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; ...? Reminded me of a passage in One Hundred Years of Solitude. "They became indignant over the living images that the prosperous merchant Bruno Crespi projected in the theater with the lion-head ticket windows, for a character who had died and was buried in one film and for whose misfortune tears of affliction had been shed would reappear alive and transformed into an Arab in the next one. The audience, who paid two cents apiece to share the difficulties of the actors, would not tolerate that outlandish fraud and they broke up the seats. The mayor, at the urging of Bruno Crespi, explained in a proclamation that the cinema was a machine of illusions that did not merit the emotional outbursts of the audience. With that discouraging explanation many felt that they had been the victims of some new and showy gypsy business and they decided not to return to the movies, considering that they already had too many troubles of their own to weep over the acted-out misfortunes of imaginary beings."

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.
- fragmede 6y ago
  Is it? I don't think it is. Disregarding crazed celebrity stalkers (which, to be clear, do exist but they are outliers), no one is going to be gifted a 60-second video/audio clip from their favorite celebrity, and actually believe that the celebrity knows who they are. It's a cute gift from a loved one (parent/sibling/partner/close-friend) who is observant enough to know you like a particular celebrity. To use your analogy, this is a 10-cm tall miniature model Cray X-MP supercomputer that has blinking LEDs thats powered by 2 AA batteries and sits on your desk that a parent/sibling/partner/close-friend got for you because it's your favorite supercomputer. It's a bit nerdy to have as a desk ornament and some may judge you unfairly on, but if I went off on a rant about how that's a stupid model, it probably can't do any math, and that you're insane for having it... that rant would reflect more poorly on me than on the owner of the model. (If you know somebody that has that level of problems with a picture of a fridge, please get them help.)
  - pbhjpbhj 6y ago
    >if I went off on a rant about how that's a stupid model, it probably can't do any math, and that you're insane for having it... that rant would reflect more poorly on me than on the owner of the model. // Touché :) But, presumably you're not going "hey have you seen my supercomputer" and showing people a picture of your blinken-light toy on social media? The relationship people assume to have with celebrities, actors in particular, seems different to that they share with mementos/trinkets. At no point does the person think the Cray is the real thing, but people do seem to think - at some level - they know an actor because they've seen the character the actor helps to construct on screen. Everyone (adult) knows a person paid for the video with the Happy Birthday greeting, but still at some level there's social credit, which suggests we choose to accept the lie. I like your analogy, and will reflect on it some more (thanks!), but at the moment it still feels like there are fundamental differences between these situations (and that's where the interest lies).
new2628 6y ago
Really, no one? that's a bold claim.

cameronlpm 6y ago

I think I'm seeing it through the same lens as you. I'm really fascinated by the social phenomena of celebrity. Are you aware of any good papers or resources that explore the psychology of this?

jedberg 6y ago

Celebrities elicit an emotional response, similar to going to a place that has meaning to you. If you've spent twenty hours watching that person's work, and seeing them reminds you of the joy you had watching them, it makes sense that seeing them say your name would elicit a greater response.

pbhjpbhj 6y ago
Thanks, but I don't really grok the analogy - does anyone have as their special place a fictional place created on a film lot by landscapers and set designers. It all makes people happy, and I'm definitely for that, but it's a lie built on a lie - living vicariously through celebrities, and constructing lies in which we choose to rest our notions of self-worth .. I don't know about that. Now, excuse me whilst I go tell my children that Jedberg responded to me online ;o)
- jedberg 6y ago
  It's not an analogy. It's just psychology. Your brain is wired to activate areas that are attached to each other. A smell from your childhood evokes a physical response in the brain that makes you happy (or sad, depending on the childhood). It's the same with a celebrity. You physically feel good when you see that celebrity because in the past you felt good when you saw that celebrity.

aabeshou 6y ago

> Is everyone insane or is there something I'm missing. in a sense, much of the world is insane because they pursue narcissistic types of social status. but I also do think this is just fun - putting aside the idea of getting a cameo as a status symbol, it's just fun to get a message from some public figure whose work you admire.

_curious_ 6y ago
Status symbol? Maybe for highschoolers, but if someone showed me this IRL, as an adult, and actually paid real money for such platitudes I would question their maturity level. What an exploitative model.
- aabeshou 6y ago
  yeah I would feel sad for someone who's not rich who paid thousands for a shoutout from someone
  - ummonk 6y ago
    It's nowhere near thousands. It's usually like a hundred bucks. E.g. I've had friends do one from Chris Hansen as a joke for a large age-gap couple in our group, for the cost of $50.
    - aabeshou 6y ago
      thats genuinely hilarious, money well spent

jrvarela56 6y ago

We are primates guided by emotions. Our brain responds to incentives similar to those of other living beings (checkout mammals and other monkeys). Our consciousness is freeing itself from this situation via computers. The transition seems weird but digital systems are just implementing tricks we've been playing on each other for millenia. It's just weird when you see Black Mirror type of stuff.

smt88 6y ago

> Is everyone insane or is there something I'm missing. You're missing something. They're not insane, and neither are you. Imagine you've loved a certain musician your entire life and you could pay them to sing a song with your name in it. Or, imagine you and your spouse saw a certain movie on your first date, and you think it would be funny and thoughtful to have one of the actors (or characters) from that movie wish your spouse a happy birthday. Or, imagine you have followed a sports team for years and have the opportunity to talk to one of the stars. There is nothing strange or new about celebrity. Touching fame is interesting and exciting to people. There are celebrities who are genuinely meaningful to people -- maybe their work helped get through a tough time. You don't have to understand it, but it's not hurting anyone, so there's nothing insane about it. It's just a form of personalized entertainment.

haram_masala 6y ago
Just about the very last thing I would do to a musician whom I admire would be to debase them like that.
- pedalpete 6y ago
  I feel like this is the point that gets missed. For these people that are famous for a skill or craft, Cameo turns them into an Organ Grinder Monkey. Obviously if the celeb is doing it, nobody is forcing them, but the whole thing just feels so cheap and degrading. Who ever would have thought you'd say "I'll pay you $500 to wish me a happy birthday"
  - gdilla 6y ago
    They choose to be on Cameo to do it. So who cares? They make it worth their time. LeBron might do it for say $50,000 and say that all of it goes to charity. That sounds good to me.
  - hammock 6y ago
    All of these celebrities regularly take appearance fees to show up at nightclubs, bar mitzvahs, birthday parties, etc. It's extremely common. You don't hear about most of them because they're private events.

akiselev 6y ago

I wouldn't pay $5,000 for a celebrity message but I paid $50 for an actor who played a minor Game of Thrones character for a birthday message for my dad (a GoT fan) that will be delivered along with a 3D printed brass polished Hand of the King pin. It's just a really fun way to create a personalized gift for someone close to me, which is important because I have a really hard time coming up with meaningful gifts - it's usually just easier to throw money at it, and the personalized celebrity message is more meaningful with the same amount of effort. The specific service I used sends the money to the charity of the celebrity's choice (which they display before you buy) and no one will see the message except my family. I think the wedding example is just a little more public than how people normally use these things. This is the first time I've heard of them charging four figures but no surprise.

Icathian 6y ago
Would you mind naming the service you use? I struggle to think of good gifts in the post-stuff era and that sounds like a nice one to add to my toolbox.
- akiselev 6y ago
  I used https://www.celebvm.com/ https://www.celebvm.com/
  - bdcravens 6y ago
    At a glance, quite a few of the celebrities on this site are also on Cameo.

waterbadger 6y ago

If you Google “parasocial relationships” you might find some interesting content.

izzydata 6y ago
I've brought this term up a handful of times before, but nobody I know personally feels the same way I do about this. I find this kind of thing incredibly strange, but it is just the norm for so many people. Celebrity culture just makes no sense to me. They were in a movie and are now rich so now I have to care what they have for breakfast? It just seems so backward.
- waterbadger 6y ago
  I think the idea is that the way we are wired it’s a pretty natural thing that happens when we are exposed to depictions of other people (real or fictional). One thing I read also suggested that the content we get from media figures is very conducive to this kind of bonding because they often share very intimate facts about themselves, they establish reciprocal relationships with their audience where the audience likes/subscribes, buys merch, etc. Might be kind of like dopamine and variable reward cycles where technology is able to hijack a response that came to into existence in a very different environment. So far most of what I’ve read indicates that parasocial relationships are viewed as benign or positive by mental health specialists because they can genuinely supply some of the social needs people have and contribute to positive personal resiliency, stuff like that. Very interesting and weird and probably only more relevant as time goes on.

AndrewKemendo 6y ago

Humans are wired for reinforcing social hierarchies by proximity and repetition - to confer "status" via all sorts of methods which may or may not be grounded in anything "tangible" to health, longevity or knowledge. Media and Celebrity in general hack this system for profit. The root cause of all pathological behavior is your brain. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2430590/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2430590/

master-litty 6y ago

People tend to make negative associations with poverty. To survive in social circles, we tend to mask such negative associations -- Because sometimes it does have genuine negative consequence, regardless if it is fair or logical. It comes from the same idea that certain topics aren't appropriate to discuss on first dates, with your extended family, with children present, etc. So to guarantee social survivability, in this mindset, you must offer something that creates a positive association. Lying is a risky way to create that association. It's social cheating, in a way. If you're convincing enough, your lie might as well be real, as far as your relationships are concerned, and you gain the social benefits of that; Intrigue, mystery, perceived power. But if you get caught, you are labelled as someone who will lie for these benefits. Many of us can look at these consequences and say it isn't worth it -- Some of us look at those same consequences and say it is worth it. This doesn't make sense to you because you perceive the consequences as the former, not the latter.

GaryNumanVevo 6y ago

Personalization of consumption is the final frontier for consumerist capitalist culture.

pbhjpbhj 6y ago
I certainly see that deepfakes will take us to a place where we can "choose the actors" to be compiled in to a film. But that strikes me as potentially being the death of celebrity actors. If an actor's contribution can be downplayed in that way, then the actor's person becomes relatively unimportant. More akin to a puppeteer, still a vital role but the puppet takes the limelight somewhat. I'm not sure Hollywood will choose this direction, it goes against their financial benefit I feel.

packetslave 6y ago

An anecdote: a good friend of mine just found out she's pregnant with her first child. She's a huge Harry Potter fan, and her favorite characters are the Weasley Twins. For not-all-that-much money, I was able to get James and Oliver Phelps (the actors who played the twins in all 8 movies) to each record a separate video message (about 1 minute each) wishing her congratulations by name and wishing her and her baby well. I made the two Cameo requests on a Friday night, and had both videos by Sunday morning. Both were warm, friendly, and seemed to be genuine and happy for her (obviously to the extent that they know her: "name is X, first-time mom, huge fan". She was absolutely over-the-moon happy about receiving them.

vharuck 6y ago
This and other responses show where this service shines: as a gift to others. It's only sad if there's deception for money.
- citizenkeen 6y ago
  I think the key thing is knowing the "deep cuts" of your friend's fandom. You can get a lot of minor actors (one of whom is surely a recurring character on your partner's favorite under-appreciated TV show) for cheap.
- foofoo55 6y ago
  But is it not deception (to ourselves) to believe that these celebrities somehow acknowledge and maybe even like us, when they required money to do so? (Never mind the concept of someone becoming more special than others by being good at pretending to be not themselves.) I realize I sound grumpy to many people but the whole thing seems like such a sham.
  - FreeFull 6y ago
    The thing is, without some sort of barrier, they would be completely swamped by the public trying to get them to record these, and then would be practically forced to stop doing it.

balls187 6y ago

> Why is it impressive, to a large proportion of the population, rather than just sad and wasteful (as it appears to me). Don't underestimate the power of nostalgia on humans, which triggers the release of endorphins which targets the pleasure center of the brain. There are so many dimensions a service like this can be used in powerful (and postive) ways. My father turns 73 next week how great would it be for me to send him a personalized recording of song from a famous Tamil musician? That would be $50 better spent than the $50 wireless food thermometer I got him instead. Or for my soon to be 5 year old son, have one of the voice actors from his favorite tv shows, record him a personalized birthday greeting? Better than $50 worth of toys that he will forget about in a years time.

ChainOfFools 6y ago

> 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. I can't quite put my finger on why, but this suggests an alternate form of IPO is being reinvented, where the currency of issue was branded social capital, and actual cash is a kind of leveraged instrument instead of the primary medium of exchange. I also feel like this might be a well known pattern in behavioral economics and I just don't know the proper name for it.

WalterBright 6y ago
"social proof" is what you're looking for.

eyerony 6y ago

> Is everyone insane or is there something I'm missing. Difference in taste based on class-related norms & values, mostly, is what I'd say you're missing. Can make a thing really impressive/desirable to one group of people, and simultaneously gauche/disgusting to another.

chrisseaton 6y ago

> Is everyone insane or is there something I'm missing. Different people have different tastes. Relax and let them enjoy what they enjoy.

majormajor 6y ago

Comments like this often appear to be the exact sort of status-seeking they claim to hate. "I don't even own a TV," etc. I really don't think the logical leap between "people like [person]" to "people think it's cute to pay a couple hundred bucks to get a unique message for someone from them." And then if you want to get into "but some people spend thousands..." - then we're still just criticizing the extremes of the market, and not so much the concept. Like making a show of freaking out about the fact that some people pay $LOTS for a bottle of alcohol, vs the person who claims they can't understand why others would enjoy alcohol in the first place.

newbie789 6y ago
I can't speak for the commentor that you're replying to, but I also found the whole "only $5,000" point to be a hard to identify with. I've personally never had $5,000 at one time in my entire life, let alone $5,000 to spend on a short video. For me (and quite a few people that I know) that would literally be life changing money, so it's difficult to grasp. I don't personally think the commentor was "making a show" with his question. In fact, if expressing opinions on this topic counts as "status seeking", wouldn't your defense of this business model count as the exact same thing you're decrying? By my understanding of what you've just said, (paraphrasing here) "I can't imagine spending money on this" seeks to establish a status, but "I do not have a problem with people spending money on this" does not seek to establish a status. The way I read it, if "status-seeking" is at issue, the main difference is between the status you attempt to seek vs the status you perceive the other person to be seeking, not an indictment of the practice as a whole. Edit: typo
- hckr_news 6y ago
  That was a bit of joke on my part with the 5k dollars. But who knows, people might just be willing to pay that if it makes their spouse/child/parent a little bit more happier or give them some memory they’ll cherish. But rates on the app range depending on the status of the celeb, and the lowest I believe is 25-30 dollars.
themacguffinman 6y ago

standardUser 6y ago

If you have tons of money and aren't obsessive about your spending, then this is a fun and funny way to spend some cash and entertain your friends. If you're taking out loans and piling up credit card debt so the Soup Nazi can wish you a scripted "happy birthday", you may have a problem. It reminds me of the episode of Community where Abed kept compulsively hiring celebrity look-a-likes for his own entertainment. EDIT: After browsing the site, I totally see the appeal. Most of the actors cost around $100 or less and there are pages full of familiar faces, including some personal favorites. There is a 50% chance I end up buying this as a gift for someone!

lancesells 6y ago

This is an easy and somewhat scalable way for celebrities to provide a virtual "meet & greet" experience. It's like people who go to a comic-con and pay for autographs and a picture of their favorite star. This is probably going to take off even more in the Covid era.

pbhjpbhj 6y ago
Yes, I see how it works, I question really whether it's healthy. People will even get a picture with a celebrity lookalike, which is like a third-level lie. Then other people are a little "impressed" (or that might be the fourth level of lie). It's all v. strange to me.

narrator 6y ago

I never got celebrity stuff either. I mean I guess I think Elon Musk is really cool, but I still realize he's a person and wouldn't want him to record a birthday greeting for me. So somebody I think is a good actor, like Keanu Reeves says "Happy Birthday, Narrator!" in a video. All I can think of is "How much did he get paid or that?" A normal person sees Keanu and they recall how cool he was in The Matrix, the emotions of admiration overwhelm them and "Happy Birthday, Normal Person!" overwhelms them with joy. Is this what happens, Normal People? I guess we just have a different psychological makeup than most people. It's probably that emotions don't easily transfer from other people, especially in recorded media. It's probably evolutionary to prevent a few mutants from going along with the crowd.

cortesoft 6y ago

I am curious what you think is valuable use of spending money... I am sure whatever you say, I could describe it in such a way that it sounds vacuous and wasteful. Instead of focusing on why you think it is ridiculous, maybe try to think of why it wouldn't be. You might understand others better.

mundo 6y ago

> What's the root cause of this pathological behaviour Our monkey brains are hardwired to think that it's vitally important to keep track of what the high status monkeys are doing?

swyx 6y ago

I'm with you. poor(er) people paying rich(er) celebs for the satisfaction of getting a 30 second shoutout sounds extremely dystopian.

bubblethink 6y ago

>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; ...? Reminded me of a passage in One Hundred Years of Solitude. "They became indignant over the living images that the prosperous merchant Bruno Crespi projected in the theater with the lion-head ticket windows, for a character who had died and was buried in one film and for whose misfortune tears of affliction had been shed would reappear alive and transformed into an Arab in the next one. The audience, who paid two cents apiece to share the difficulties of the actors, would not tolerate that outlandish fraud and they broke up the seats. The mayor, at the urging of Bruno Crespi, explained in a proclamation that the cinema was a machine of illusions that did not merit the emotional outbursts of the audience. With that discouraging explanation many felt that they had been the victims of some new and showy gypsy business and they decided not to return to the movies, considering that they already had too many troubles of their own to weep over the acted-out misfortunes of imaginary beings."