P&A

Presentation and appearance.  Those are the two most important implicit and at the same time, explicit factors when it comes to marketability.  Without presentation and appearance, you're going to have a tough time selling your product; let alone even getting the chance to deliver it to the consumer.  If this weren't the case, we'd all buy generic food at the supermarket.  If the display environment didn't matter, then we'd all go to Best Buy and purchase the "discount mp3 player" and not really pay much mind to the latest iPod model.  You can argue the function of the devices and taste of the food, but you probably wouldn't even realize any of these benefits if you hadn't noticed the products in the first place.  Once again, Presentation and Appearance.  P&A. 

Beyond price markups and economic strategy, P&A is also vital when making other possibly crucial decisions.  Whether you acknowledge it or not, presentation and appearance are the two biggest things when it comes to winning the approval of other people.  We would all like to think we're not that vain, but truth is, we really are.  Those two things matter.  A lot.  From wearing nice clothes, to keeping our car clean, we do care what other people think, and regardless of what we think, we intuitively know that P&A goes a long way, and the perception of it by others really is a reality.



P&A is used mainly in gaining approval, or attempting to sell a product, as shown by example above.  A stage performer is an example of an entity which tries to accomplish both, and they use massive amounts of P&A.  We all know the production and promotion that goes into concerts, live shows, and other forms of entertainment.  But have you ever realized the power of the greatest ingredient to a performer's P&A?  The power of their name?

Real, fake, or obviously staged, the name a performer chooses to go by makes all the difference.  This is where a believable, yet barely researched phenomenon comes into play.  And this is where this article gets a lot less serious.



Put on your analytical hats (even though hat wearing is a dying practice) and ask yourself... what's in a name?



Is "Bill Currington" just as good at drinking beer?  Or would we rather look to "Billy Currington" for good directions?


Why is "Kesha" spelled with a dollar sign?



How many albums/iTunes downloads would "Bob Zombie" sell?



Three examples of P&A as directly applied to stage names.  Although this seems admittedly ridiculous, the subtleties are probably very important.  Their name is probably not what got them bolstered into stardom, but their name is definitely what carried them over the top.




Would the professional wrestling career of Randall the "Macho Man" Savage even have materialized?


What if you found out that the tremendously popular CBS program "How I Met Your Mother" was narrated by Robert Saget?



Not only the P&A of the name itself, but the selection of the proper name variation has proven to be pivotal.  Just mere name equivalent substitution can make all of the difference.


Would you listen to what Ronnie sang if "Take me Home Tonight" was performed by Edward Money?


Would "Vinny Diesel" even get casted for anything outside of the "Jersey Shore?"


Do these notable pop-culture figures even take time and effort to consider this?  Probably, and most likely due to both P&A and the precedent put on vanity in Hollywood.  But it could also easily be a Darwinian thing, in which we have to go to another part of the circle in this logic, and view this more as a causal phenomenon than an effectual one. In other words, once they found the right name, and given they had the other set of attributes necessary (mainly talent), all of the other pieces started to fall into place. 

This phenomenon (if you will), can also be explored when you consider past leaders of our country.  Let's take a glance at a select few U.S. Presidents.


Millard Fillmore went by Millard, without any extreme repercussions.


FDR more than got by on an acronym, but he was equally as memorable with Franklin Delano Roosevelt.


"I like Ike" vaulted Dwight Eisenhower into the oval office. 


William Jefferson Clinton made headlines, and in the headlines he was referred to as Bill, or "Slick Willy."


Many people did not approve of George Dubya.  But this could have been in reaction to policy.


Of course, many of these monikers were not chosen by our past leaders.  But they did run with these nicknames, and rode them to success... or failure...




Moving on...



Although this might have not affected his talent, what if Lawrence Bird led the Celtics to 3 NBA Championships... Lawrence Legend???



How unbelievably Irish sounding is William O'Reilly?



Can you teach me how to Douglas?



As discussed with the presidents above, we have had many people who were a success with interchangeable monikers.  Jonathan Taylor Thomas made schoolgirls swoon in the mid-90s with as many as three names, and as few as three letters 'JTT.' 



Name interchangers like William Jefferson 'Bill' Clinton, Dwight 'Ike' Eisenhower, and JTT above only serve to be the exception that proves the rule, and it is always more amusing to find notable figures with “Poor Namesmanship.”


The more you think about this, the more you realize how easily the fate of the popular world could have been altered.  The way we have been influenced has been influenced by simple P&A.  What you go by can easily determine what you sell, where you place, and how you're remembered. 

Perhaps it is Darwinian, and perhaps there is something to be said about Nomenclature Selection.



Thomas and Gerald?