Between Priscilla You-Only-Know-Me-Because-I-Married-Elvis Presley whooping it up on “Dancing With The Stars” and the recent lawsuit over Marilyn Monroe’s “right of publicity,” I’ve been thinking about dead celebrities lately. And it wouldn’t be the first time.
In fact, the famous(ly) departed are in such demand that Forbes has been issuing its “Top Earning Dead Celebrities” list for 7 years now, and many a marketer has used Q Score research to assess the potential fit of a celebrity endorsement or association deal. The Q Score is a product of Marketing Evaluations, Inc., a research firm that surveys a representative sample of U.S. adults every two years to determine the familiarity and appeal of over 150 personalities (actors, sports stars, authors, chefs, etc.), may they be alive or dead.
Both the Forbes list and Q rankings point to the incredible endurance of some stars, as well as the interesting difference between the fluffy concept of popularity and the iconic attributes that generate cold hard cash. Elvis Presley is the biggest money maker but not the most popular; Lucille Ball is the most popular but is nowhere to be found on the Forbes list. Rodney Dangerfield, Clark Gable and John Belushi all have higher Q Scores than John Lennon, but Lennon’s is the second-highest grossing estate in 2007 at $44 million, while none of these other gentlemen are big income producers
What does it all mean, other than dead celebs are big business? Who knows. What I do know is that Elvis has been dead for over 20 years – and it’s highly unlikely that Britney, Miley, Blake, Sienna or Ashton will be making these lists two decades from now.
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elvis presley
Lucille ball
john lennon
”q score”
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