the greatest PR strategy ever

Why are the Pussycat Dolls so popular?

It's because the group is brilliant. This is not saying that the group's music is brilliant, like Andre 3000's. Rather, the idea of the Pussycat Dolls is brilliant.

Let's start with the name. Pussycats! Who doesn't like a nice cat to snuggle up to? So warm and fuzzy. Unless you're allergic, you'd have to be pretty damn soulless not to feel some happiness at seeing a sleeping cat cuddled up in a ball on the couch. The word also invokes memories of Tweety ('puddy tat'...too cute) and Josie and the Pussycats, meant to conjure up feelings of nostalgia and happier childhood times while also alluding to another popular (albeit fictitious) band.

Then you have "Dolls." Dolls have, for a while, been the staple toy for girls. Hell, it could even be the staple toy for boys, if you consider "Action Figures" dolls (they essentially are). "Dolls," similar to "Pussycat," serves to stir up that good ol' nostalgia.

Beyond the name, the Pussycat Dolls were originally a burlesque group. Given our Puritan, anti-sex history as a country, the shift into music is a brilliant one. "Look!" the group seems to scream with every hip thrust on stage. "We were once burlesque, but now we've reformed! We're a pop group now! Innocence! Empowerment! Catchy tunes!"

Everybody likes someone who has "changed." Especially if it has to do with smut. No, burlesque is not really smut, but remember that Puritan background of our founding fathers? Yep. In America's eyes, the Pussycat Dolls, in moving from burlesque group to pop group, might as well have given up prostitution to become nuns.

Finally, you get the group members themselves. They are all female. While stars like Britney Spears and Pink instill a sense of "girl power" in insecure teens looking for an idol, the Pussycat Dolls takes that notion and quintuples it. There are FIVE Pussycat Dolls, all of whom are gyrating with female empowerment and equality.

In order to cash in on the popularity of, well, pop, the Pussycat Dolls is a carefully constructed idea designed to manipulate one's sense of nostalgia and need for progress while also playing off the fundamental values of reform and head-bobbing catchiness.

Oh yea, and boobies.