Justin Bieber is Stalking Me

A few months ago on my personal blog, I wondered who this Justin Bieber kid was I kept seeing on the cover of the teen magazines.

Now I know.

Oh boy, do I know.

Over the past six months, singer Justin Bieber has been showing up everywhere I go. Beaming at me from People magazine in the check-out line. Winking at me from t-shirts when I go to the mall. He even shows up in my living room every time I turn on TMZ.  In fact, I know which restaurants he’s dined at and what embarrasses him, but I can’t tell you one song he sings.

According to Mary Sawyer, media expert and director of public relations at the Brighton Agency in St. Louis, Bieber’s been stalking a whole lotta people. With a savvy PR campaign behind him, Bieber was making fans across the world way before his first album was released in November.

Said Sawyer via e-mail, “Disney, Nickelodeon, Def Recordings (Bieber’s studio) and the other media companies that represent these young artists have publicists who continually push for interviews, spots on award shows, public appearances and social media coverage that fuel teens’ interest.  The media plays a huge role in promoting new personalities to young audiences.”

In other words, marketers made sure our kids would fall in love with Bieber before his fans ever heard him sing a single note.

I understand why girls loved the Bieber. He sings well, he has a sassy hairdo, and he seems like the kind of boy who would feed you popcorn while you watch New Moon. What makes Bieber so unique though is before Justin Timberlake and Usher battled it out to sign him, he got his start on YouTube, thereby potentially opening the floodgates for a new group of teen idols to breakthrough via social media.

“YouTube, e-mail, text messaging and other social media tools have enabled every budding musician to showcase his/her talent, but something has to propel the person to stardom,” wrote Sawyer. “In some cases, it may be purely whimsical, but in most cases, there are smart marketing managers engaged in a variety of promotional activities.”

It’ll be interesting to follow Bieber’s career over the next few years. To see if the tweens that fawn over him now will be in the future like my friend Jen who was psyched to get meet-and-greet ticket for NKOTB last summer or, um, like yours truly who, to her husband’s dismay, continues to wear her Michael Jackson t-shirt to the gym and perch her Michael Jackson doll on her desk (Thriller-era Jackson, not baby-dangling, mask-wearing, creepy-mannequins-in-his-house Jackson).

In the meantime, I know Bieber will be waiting around every corner for me. Until the next teen heartthrob comes along.

By Nicole Plegge, Lifestyle for SmartParenting