THE purple cow

Ever heard of the term, "purple cow" ? Coined by author, Seth Godin, most marketers should be familiar with this concept; basically, if you were to drive down the highway, you would see lots and lots of cows. Your initial reactions will probably be, "ZOMG! BROWN COW!" Eventually, as you drive by more and more brown cows, you become less and less excited about them. But then within the sea of brown cows... leapin' lizards, you see a PURPLE COW!!? So, the moral of the story is to be something out of the ordinary (the purple cow), something remarkable that people want to talk about. If you can be the purple cow, you're pretty much hot2go.

I'm pro-GaGa but don't like to talk about it much because everyone either LOVES/HATES her. No, her songs are not the best songs ever, but she IS THE purple cow (likewise, the new business model). In a music-world filled with indie-darlings, boy bands, auto-tuned rappers, and singer-songwriters lamenting over lost love, there is no one else in the music industry even remotely similar to her. Good or bad, everyone talks about GaGa's antics and the strange things she'll come up with next.

She's revolutionized the music and fashion industry with the use of social media. She tweeted to her fans that her new single "Bad Romance" will be debuting @ Alexander McQueens Spring/Summer show in Paris back in October(ish?). Fans were able to stream the show online, but the servers eventually crashed due to the overwhelming traffic to the site.

Non-fans can easily point their fingers and dismiss her as "attention-seeking"/she is only doing it for the "shock-factor", or "her clothes are so effing weird". While yes, GaGa's actions may be provocative, they are also laced with social commentary (if you caught her interview with Oprah, you can skip this part). Rewind back to the 2009 MTV VMA's where she bled to death on family-television - as strange and disturbing as that was, you probably didn't know that she was paying homage to the late Princess Diana, who was killed by the paparazzi.... yaknow, the FAME MONSTER? (OHHH!!!) Further, the song "Dance in the Dark", is about a girl who will only have sex in the dark because she's ashamed of her body / women and men feeling insecure about themselves. If the brand of GaGa is about accepting yourself/the things that make you different, and celebrating your unique-ness rather than feeling ashamed about it --- How can you condemn GaGa as a bad thing???

Not to mention, she is an exceptionally talented musician. If you get the chance, try to find some of old videos of her on YouTube when she was still known as "Stephanie Germanotta". LEGIT.

THAT SAID (the point of this long-winded post), these Lady GaGa Barbie dolls are totally old news (DIY by some guy named Veik from Beijing) but I haven't gotten around to blogging about them until now... can someone please buy me these GaGa dolls! -- please and thanks :)

ps - more "doll" posts to follow!

(images via The Skinny)