Ever since the pet rock fad struck it big in the 70’s, I’ve been fascinated by the concept of fads. How does an ordinary rock become such a prized object that people willingly pay money for it and turn the creator an instant millionaire? (In the case of the pet rock, the training manual was the key. People were fascinated by the idea of teaching the rock tricks; “sit ” and “stay” were the easiest, natch). In 2009, nothing as silly as the pet rock fad captured the public’s fickle imagination. The top fads of 2009 related to feeling better, looking hotter and younger, and connecting with or one-upping other people, albeit superficially.
When I think of boot camps, my mind conjures up a mean-faced Sergeant Carter on Gomer Pyle yelling “Move it, move it, move it” to his platoon of hapless Marines. Why anyone in the 21st Century would want to subject themselves to being ordered to do man push ups is beyond me. Still, it seems like whenever I go to a park, I see a group of seemingly free-willed adults following the orders of a sadistic drill sergeant.
Top fad 2009 #2: Outing celebrity affairs
In the good old days before the Internet and 24 hour cable TV news, it was easy for celebrities to have affairs without the public even knowing about it. Sure, a cryptic blurb might appear in a page three gossip column and a few people would whisper. But you would never see a reporter like Walter Cronkite on a serious news show interview the girlfriends of a married celebrity like Tiger Woods or pursue the affairs of people like David Letterman or ESPN’s Steve Phillips with the same vigor as more important stories, like hurricanes.
So I’m thinking the people who make bottled water figured if they added some special woo woo chemicals to the water they could charge even more for it than the dollar or so a bottle they charge for the ordinary water they claim to import from some fancy spring in France (France, Arkansas more likely). The result: one of the top fads of 2009, the energy drink. Add a slim cool looking can and a funky name like Mother, Nerd, Red Bull, Edge or Jolt and you have the makings of one of 2009’s most profitable fads.
Top fad 2009 #4: Purse dogs
Purse dogs were a natural fad for the plunging economy of 2009. For one thing, they’re small so they cost less money to feed than a big lab or Doberman. Second, women do not have actual money to put in their purses, so they can fill the empty space with a dog.
What could look cooler than wearing a piece of plastic on top of your ear. Just about anything else, really. But for some reason, wearing Bluetooth headsets was a big fad in 2009. Some people think people did it to make themselves look important or popular, but more likely they were just afraid they’d lose the little widgets if they put them down anywhere.
Top fad 2009 #6: Animal print clothing
Although one could argue that Snuggies are a top fad of 2009 (at least their TV commercials would have you believe that everyone but you owns one), even the Snuggie people succumbed to the 2009 fad of wearing animal prints and launched their new line of animal print Snuggies. I’ve seen people wearing animal skin socks, animal skin shoes, animal skin purses, animal skin sweaters-sometimes all at once. Just a warning to these folks: steer clear of rogue Alaskan women wearing glasses.
With the advent of Facebook and Twitter, everyone suddenly has more friends than an Amway distributor. Thanks to social media, we can connect with new friends, reconnect with old friends and even become friends of friends. It’s gotten to the point where you meet someone you don’t know at a party and say, “Hey, aren’t we friends on Facebook?”
Top fad 2009 #8: Wrinkle erasers
Sure, Botox has been around for awhile, but due to its high cost this paralyzing agent was mainly used by the “ladies who lunch” crowd. In 2009, wrinkle erasers had come down enough in price that even the ladies who lunch at Wendy’s crowd could afford to have smooth, expressionless faces. Perhaps a new fad in 2010 could be picture cards with happy, sad and surprised faces that a woman could place in front of her face to express emotion.
Top fad 2009 #9: “No worries”
The Australian phrase “no worries,” which means “all is good, no harm done” according to the Urban Dictionary, became an ironically popular expression for Americans to utter in 2009. When you think about it, Americans probably had more to worry about in 2009 than any other year since 2001 when we began to fear that even our mail could be poisoned with ricin. In 2009, all we had to fear was that our trusted banks were stealing all of our money.
Top fad 2009 #10: Boutique cupcakes
Marie Antoinette said “Let them eat cake,” and that’s exactly what we did in 2009. Only we ate cute miniature cakes with large dollops of frosting sold at boutique cupcake bakeries with cutesy names like Saint Cupcakes, BabyCakes and Cake Fetish Cupcakes. Some people liked the frosting so much that cupcakeries began selling frosting shots (see article here) and forgetting about the cupcake altogether. No doubt these were the same people who made the fitness boot camps so popular!
