The Psychology of the Bobble Head Doll

My daughter headed out early this morning to meet friends for breakfast, before going to "the game." The game, in summer, in North America, is none other than baseball!! Today, at the Skydome, they were giving out Arencibia bobble head dolls, to the - not sure of the exact number but maybe - first 10,000 visitors and given that the dome was "full" that means that there were probably 45,000 in the stands - boggles or bobbles the mind!!

Later, we had a family discussion over dinner as to why "bobble-heads" were so popular. Apparently when they give out sport's bags or T-shirts - really useful items - they get a respectable number of people lining up before the game, but when they give out bobble heads, they get people lining up from 7:00am for a 1:00pm start. So, as any entrepreneur interested in marketing might say, "WHY?"  What is it about bobble-heads that is so compelling!!

Brandon Morrow - Bobble-Head doll

I know people collect them and yes there is probably some money to be made on Ebay reselling them, but that still means that there are a lot of people that think that bobble heads are the "cat's whiskers." OK maybe not the best analogy!

I don't follow a lot of other sports, so I don't know if they have bobble heads for basketball, soccer, football or tennis. Now maybe they could, if they had the hand bobble or the leg bobble, other than the head bobble, they could do an Andy Murray bobble hand, for example!!! Yes let's hear it for Andy!!!

I know that one Christmas I almost bought an Albert Einstein bobble head doll for my father. My father would have been over 90 at the time and he has always idolized Einstein. I can see the doll now on the bookcase, nodding in agreement to the thoughts of the day!!

All hypotheses welcome!!!  If you know the secret of the bobble head - please give us a nod or two :) The picture - Brandon Morrow as a bobble head - sorry I couldn't get the Arencibia - he's out tonight with my daughter, who is showing him off!!

Have a stellar day!!