Celebrity Look-Alike culture has always been a business model, but what happens when it becomes an annoying trend? Realistically, doppelgänger is one of nature’s mysteries, it’s inevitable, and that’s just that. According to scientists, every person has roughly six doppelgängers out there in the world. That means seven people with your face, including you, are out there. As flattering as it can get, it genuinely becomes annoying at some point, especially with celebrities, and as expected, it always ends up with a lawsuit.
Celebrity look-alike has been a career path for years now. Take Fake Drake/Izzy, for example, who bore an uncanny resemblance to the actual rapper and was getting paid to make appearances at events, with all expenses paid for, earning a whopping $5000 per show, performing Drake’s songs. What started as a viral moment now became a cash cow for Fake Drake, impersonating Aubrey Graham to make money. Drake’s team served the lookalike with a cease and desist notice, forcing him to change his name.
He received a legal warning demanding him to stop using Drake’s name, likeness and trademarks, which they claimed were “damaging and defamatory” to the OVO brand, calling his actions “unwarranted, unwelcome, and unacceptable”. This ended an ongoing run for over a year and shut down any possibilities of a future “Fake Drake ”. The crazy part is not only are the individuals involved in this, but companies are also culprits too.
Forever 21, a multinational fast fashion retailer, was under heavy backlash after attempting to use a look-alike model to impersonate Ariana Grande in their new ad campaign. They falsely made it look like she was backing the brand by using imagery from her “Thank U, Next” album and hiring a model that looked just like her to recreate scenes from her “7 Rings” music video.
The singer filed a lawsuit that stated that they continuously ran the campaign on their website and social media, with an ad posted on February 8 showing a clothing collection promoted with a slogan that plays off the lyrics from “7 Rings.” The look-alike model, whose facial features resembled Grande’s, wore her hair in the pop star’s signature ponytail, with accessories that matched the ones Grande wore in the “7 Rings” video. Grande claimed the company capitalized on her success in selling products — even though she never signed a deal with them- using her doppelgänger to trick fans into thinking it was her. The lawsuit against the company sought at least $10 million in damages for copyright and trademark infringement, false endorsement and violating her right to publicity.
This scheme is not new to Ghanaian culture. There have been enablers that birthed the idea, well maybe without knowing. Take Tv Africa’s “Just like you” reality show. This platform gave artistes a chance to mimic their favourite celebrities in the early 00’s, birthed Kwame Anokye, widely known as Daddy Lumba Junior, who, for years, impersonated the real DL, claiming to be his son to get gifts and money from people.
It all ended when DL filed a lawsuit at the Accra High Court, stating that the name Daddy Lumba exclusively refers to him within the music industry and that the defendant’s imitation and misrepresentation have affected his reputation and brand.
This moved the doppelgänger to change his artiste name to Anokye Supremo, who died in India after surgery to remove a brain tumour which caused him partial blindness. The new era is facing a similar issue, multiple ones. In the past few weeks, a King Promise look-alike has emerged out of nowhere, summoning other lookalikes to join him in this stained effort to make money.
Surprisingly, he now has versions of Kidi, Kwame Eugene, Fameye, Mr Drew, Medical and Sarkodie joining him on a mission to beg for money from “fans” and seek an “investor” that will help them reach their goals and potential as artistes. Dubbed the “Ghana Look-Alike Artiste Association”, they’ve been on what seems to be a media tour, begging for funds and impersonating their artists for clout. Quamina MP’S look-alike charged a Secondary high school to perform under the guise of Quamina MP, and Kuame Eugene’s second look-alike did the same.
From the actual artist’s view, it brings all sorts of displeasure and insults their hustle. Imagine building your brand brick by brick, and then a look-alike pops out of nowhere and starts to make money from your work.
Earning a living by resembling someone famous is a strange business. At no time is your fate your own, but instead, that of the celebrity you happen to be impersonating, switching up and going the extra mile beyond your reach to keep up. With the group now ready to release a song after gathering enough noise for their ways, it’s only right the actual artists put an end to this right away, news emerged that representatives from King Promise’s camp reached out to the said look-alike, but he still seems to be going with it, it’s just a matter of time before it becomes a legal issue, either way, it is one of the cultures that has to be dealt with.
