It’s for a baby doll; the subject line is “It’s The Most Lifelike Baby Doll Ever.” And it IS realistic! There’s a picture and it looks exactly like a real baby! (Come to think of it, the picture probably is a real baby.) It’s extraordinarily creepy; here’s the text of the e-mail:
It’s got some links and such as well, but I don’t really want to post the URL; send me an e-mail if you really want to see it, and I’ll forward it to you.
Why would someone want a perfectly lifelike baby doll? All I can think of is infertile couples or single women. What a corrosively cynical way to make money.
And who on Earth would send “birth announcements”? Eesh.
Why the link aversion? It’s just a (fairly expensive) baby doll. I guess I don’t really get the dame creepy vibe you do from the ad.
If you want plausible deniability Jackalope just tell people to punch “A VINYL BABY DOLL SO TRULY REAL” into google and you’re there. She looks like Edward G. Robinson… nyaah ya mugs.
True. It’s not a porn link or anything. My aversion to posting a link was the same as my aversion to clicking a link in a spam message; I didn’t want to say “Hey! This is a working e-mail address!” Also I suspect any spammer of being the type of person who’ll put you in one of those endless pop-up loops.
I’m creeped out by it because it looks so real; the extreme attention to lifelike detail implies to me that it’s not just for looking at, that it’s supposed to provide a “RealTouch™ vinyl” substitue for a real baby in some way.
Also the subject line made me think it was for sex dolls, so I got a lot of creepy associations floating around when I saw it.
Hmm, maybe it’s not that creepy after all. Maybe I’m the creepy one…
Jackass hits new heights… Bash the baby should be able to entertain Mtv’s high-brow public for a couple of thousand reruns…
Drug smugglers can use Linda Webb’s Loving Emily Doll ™ instead of actual baby’s. A great tool to improve their relatively damaged public image!
Frustrated people unable to have children naturally or through legal adoption can vent their love, grieve and frustration through this doll-like proxy, which in its best enactment of a child would perform the piece: “dead baby, a still life”
[sub]And I’m crossing my fingers that it’s not too lifelike to atract a very seriously sick kind of “the wrong people”…[/sub]
Can anyone come up with a genuine use for these dolls for the general public? (Movie and entertainment purposes thereby excluded) Because the only things I come up with would better justify investing the money in some long-term psychiatric help.
Although the ad creeps me out a bit too, I can think of a legitimate purpose (other than yuppie parents who need a new way to over-indulge their children). Educational. Both those new-mother infant care classes, and the high school classes where kids are required to care for some baby-sized object for a period of time to get an idea about parenthood. Remember an episode of Frasier where Niles was carrying a 10 lb. bag of flour around to determine his potential as a father? This realistic baby doll would make it more believable. On the other hand, given that schools can’t even come up with the funds for text books these days, a $150 doll probably isn’t going to be high on their lists.
I started typing a disclaimer right after I posted my above response but you captured all the highlights.
I think the ‘normal’ use of dolls by children for reenacting their fantasies of parenthood is a good thing. A great teaching tool for parents and children alike, as the more ‘primitive’ versions have been for years.
As long as the mouth doesn’t open and it has no functional orifaces, I think it’s ok. It looks like the mouth doesn’t open.
Ok, I lied, it’s still creepy. You know someone’s out there doin’ it with one of those.
Oh, I don’t know about that. Our public middle school has these, and they run about $250 apiece (in bulk). They also keep kids from cheating and just stuffing their doll or sack of flour into a locker when the teacher isn’t looking.
You know what that thing reminds me of? Anne Geddes work. Or as a friend of mine refers to her “The chick that takes pictures of dead babies.” (Of course, I sent him the link.) There’s also a lady who takes pictures of real dead babies and does some (not very convincing) Adobe tricks to make it look like the baby’s alive. (No links, I’m not that cruel.)
All I gotta say is “Yuck!” That’s just freakin’ creepy.
It’s not that creepy. A lot of people (likely with too much time and money) collect dolls, and I’m sure some specialize in baby dolls. A really lifelike one would a good addition to a collection that is bound to be a bit repetative.
Then again, just think about how much fun this would be. Keep one in your trunk for when you are putting away groceries in public! Carry it around, and then suddenly drop it. And, not that I’d ever think of something this terrible, but some sick individuals might be tempted to leave it on doorsteps, in bathroom stalls, clothing racks in stores, the front window…
My mother took a class a few years ago where she learned how to make dolls. They heard about this sort of thing, the vinyl, life-like baby… and were told that they can be built with a warming unit that makes a heartbeat sound.
