Star Power – How Do We Get Celebs to Help Our Sport?

By Caroline Coile

Let’s face it: As much as we want to promote purebred dogs because of their predictable tendencies and health, that’s not why the typical person chooses one. They choose one because their friend has one, they saw one in a movie, their favorite celebrity has one, or there was a cute video with one on Facebook. As much as we argue against it, dogs are a type of fashion. Few people choose a Dachshund so it can get that pesky Badger out of the backyard, or a Yorkie to take care of the rat problem, or even a Saluki to provide that ever-popular Sunday gazelle roast. They choose it because they just like it, just like they choose a $1000 designer purse or this year’s new boot style they can hardly walk in.

Purebred animals may have their roots in necessity but they have their popularity because of luxury. People have long aspired to status by association – whether by social climbing or by emulating an admired person – and purebred dogs have provided one way in which to do so. Queen Victoria’s love of purebred dogs was well-reported at the time, directly fueling the market for pedigreed dogs. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, purebreds were still comparatively rare with the middle class, although they were increasingly popular with Hollywood celebrities. As purebreds became increasingly affordable, AKC pulled in more and more registrations, but their value as status symbols decreased. Then, the celebrities started getting rescues and designer dogs as a way to set themselves apart – and the masses followed, and registrations fell.

Whether we like it or not, AKC has always been in the fashion industry. It just happens to be the fashion of purebred dogs. So, how do we promote our fashion when many of our major promoters – celebrities seem to have abandoned us? You find the ones who still love us and you exploit them shamelessly.

So how’s that going? In the fight over Florida’s proposed Amendment 13 to ban Greyhound racing, the AKC published a position statement opposing the ban. It was a nice gesture. The group supporting the ban published a letter signed by 30-some celebrities. It was shared over 17,000 times.

I would like to think that AKC knows more about dogs than the combined knowledge of Pierce Brosnan, Ellen Degeneres, Daisy Fuentes, Josh Peck, Alicia Silverstone, Slash, Owen Wilson, and others I never heard of, but I guarantee the general public was more swayed by the celebrity opinion.

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Posted by Alex on Sep 1 2020. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.