We’ve lost a lot of celebrities in the recent weeks, and a death is like an emergency – you don’t really know how you’re going to react until it happens.

My reaction to two of the celebrities who died – Michael Jackson and Billy Mays – surprised me.

Billy Mays passed away right in the middle of the Michael fever (same with Farrah Faucett, who died the same day as Michael). I don’t think I realized what a connection I had in my head to him until he died. I read about Billy dying on Twitter, turned on the TV, and there he was selling Kaboom.

We all let Billy, more than anyone, into our houses every single day. It’s near impossible to watch anything without seeing him. I don’t watch commercials, I’ve never bought something from an ad on tv (I do own a snuggie, but I bought it at Walgreens), I DVR everything, either on the TiVo or the DirectTV thingy, and yet…I still know Billy Mays.

I’ve also been watching, and loving, Pitchmen, which anyone interested in consumer marketing really should watch. Invaluable stuff. People have heard me rant many times about “knowing your market” and not making a product for YOU, but for your users. Billy (and his partner on the show, Anthony Sullivan) knew better than anyone else I’ve ever seen how to make sure you were selling products to your market. It was really fascinating to me to see them turn down (what I thought were) really neat products because they weren’t appropriate for their market, and select really strange stuff, because their market would like it…even if they personally did not.

Billy came off as a really nice, sweet guy. A guy who you truly would trust to tell you “hey, buy this thing.” Who you want to sit down and have a beer with. And I discovered that I really expected to see him on tv every day, and that seeing him was somewhat comforting. Some psychologist could tell me what that means.

The idea that I won’t see him anymore, ever again, is unsettling. It’s not true, of course, they’re still running his commercials, and I understand a new season of Pitchmen has been ordered. But still. He’s gone, just like Michael Jackson, at 50.

Michael Jackson was the first VHS I ever saw (Thriller), and the first CD I ever bought (Dangerous). His music is associated with my life. I don’t know how to say it better than that. I hear his music, I remember the time in my life where it came out. It’s just always been there. And suddenly, it won’t be. I’m still a little stunned at that.

Two people who were always there suddenly are not. RIP Michael Jackson and Billy Mays, you both meant more to me than I ever knew.