By Howard Pousner
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Shake your head if you believe bobbleheads are taking over America.

If they could nod by themselves, the 20,000 Chipper Jones bobbles that the Braves will hand out Thursday night and the 20,000 Dan Ugglas the team will give away on Aug. 18 surely would tip their super-sized noggins affirmatively.

So would the countless Captain America and Thor bobbleheads commanding store shelves, keyed to this endless summer of the cinematic superhero. Ditto the bobblers of Snooki of MTV's "Jersey Shore" infamy, Progressive Insurance advertising icon Flo and those ever-peppy Pep Boys—Manny, Moe and Jack.

By presidential decree—yes, just about every White House denizen from Washington to Obama has had his likeness immortalized on one of the toys—there must be two bobbleheads in every garage. Or so it sometimes seems.

These simple, springy-headed figures date to mid-19th century Germany and started the latest in a long series of comebacks in 1999 when the San Francisco Giants offered a Willy Mays bobble to smitten fans.

In an iPod and Wii-crazed world, you'd expect them to be utterly passe, not the must-have collectible of the moment. But Gus Eurton, Braves executive director of marketing, no doubt was nodding over the phone when he said, "I don't think the nostalgic value of bobbleheads has ever gone away."

No, this isn't just a case of the national pastime reveling in past times once again. Eurton views bobbles as recruiters of future fans, youngsters lured initially with their parents by a free toy that becomes a holder of fond family memories. Those small-fry have the potential to become true blue Braves fans, he believes, imagining that a dozen or so years hence, they might be regulars cruising the outfield Chop House restaurant-bar with a posse of college pals or gals.

Drawing fans from six Southeastern states, the Braves have what Eurton claims is the largest marketing footprint of any American sports franchise, and he said a bobblehead (or T-shirt or cap) giveaway can be the tipping point for families considering a Turner Field sojourn.

"It all adds up to, hopefully, we're gonna get you while you're young, like any other brand would hope to," he said. "You know, happy kids, happy parents."

The Braves are hardly the only true believers. Bensussen Deutsch & Associates Inc. in Woodinville, Wash., a major supplier of Major League Baseball premiums, delivered more than 1 million wobblers last year to be given away at some 44 promotional dates. Those numbers, by the way, didn't include our home team, which took a two-year bobblehead "breather," according to Eurton, "so it would be cool again."

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