John K pointed to this commercial. I think an example of how wrong things can go on this slope. :-) I just know I'll have nightmares about the line "Camera ciao, picture wow!"...
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Recently, and I don't know if this happens in the US too, I see several big movie stars in commercials. People like Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Bacon, Bruce Willis, and Natalie Portman. People I find it hard to believe are hard up for money.
It leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, what do you think? Seems to me that through their creative work, they have earned a sizeable amount of respect and affection amongst the public, and now they are selling out of this affection for money to help some company sell more of a product they probably don't care about. And if they care, I don't think they would do it without the money.
It seems a bit like prostitution. Taking money for showing affection which is not there.
Does Natalie really think one perfume is significantly better or more important than another?
Or does Kevin think EE (4G phone provider) is way above the rest? He doesn't even live in this country, UK, so I doubt he's a customer of theirs.
14 comments:
Well, it's not really like prostitution if they don't do it for the money. But I bet they do. Easy money, no long term set commitment, can stay home with family, that sort of thing. Would you do it?
Well, it's hard to imagine being that famous. But I doubt it. When I was young and could really use the money, I said no to selling a photo to a newspaper because I found that paper loathsome. And I've said no to a host of offers of paid advertisements on my sites. I generally don't like advertising much. It's an artificial way of selling, because it's just an emotional Want created with money.
Sometimes the perfumes have been created by the Actress/Actor, as well, so...they are vested in the product... That would be "easy money," once that starts rolling in, as well... :-D
Most actors see it as easy money. For a worldwide campaign it can be 10's of millions of dollars, like George Clooney selling Nespresso for $US40 million. Not bad for a series of short scenes. So if he doesn't mind their coffee why not go for it.
It's incredible that it will pay off to pay an actor that much!
And yes, when we talk about 40 million, I can see the point. Making movies is a lot of work.
Maybe they even have a favorite cause to help.
I worked this out a long time ago. Actors always love making easy money like this. Their apparent endorsements, of the products they get paid to hawk, don't suddenly magic the products into something amazing, but people always seem to delude themselves into believing so.
Remember the hipster Kevin Spacy EP1 ads? Kind of made me not want to buy micro-fourthirds... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vuDtcFngZc
How much more or less unethical is it for some unknown starving actor to be paid a couple hundred dollars to appear in an ad for some piece of crap product he doesn't know exists that it would be for a superstar to take a few hundred grand?
Part of it could have to do with how well the actor pulls it off. I happened to see Samuel Jackson in an ad for something shown here in Missouri the other day, and the ad stopped me in my tracks as I was getting ready to leave the house to go to the office. The odd thing is that I don't remember what the ad was about, but I remember that I believed Samuel Jackson's enthusiastic endorsement of the product.
It was odd, but when I got to my office a few minutes later, I saw an add done by some sports star, John McEnroe maybe, and I didn't believe the add. I wondered how much of the price I would be paying for the deodorant he was talking about was earmarked for the sports star that I didn't like.
I have been on the periphery of the business between stars and ad agencies, so I have had some exposure to hiring talent for producing ads. I know that in the past it was very very difficult to get a 'bankable' star to do ads in the US because they were all frightened about what it would do to their 'brand', but they never thought twice about going to Japan to make ads for stuff they've never heard of for big money. Apparently if they ruin their brand in Japan, it isn't such a big deal. Maybe the same for parts of Europe.
I hadn't really noticed until you mentioned it, but it seems that in the last three or four years there have been more really big name celebrities appearing in TV ads than in the past here in the US, although some of the more minor stars, such as stars in TV series, such as Kelsey Gramer, etc., have been doing voice work in ads for probably fifteen or twenty years. I'm not sure what has changed in recent years to drive that shift.
In line with what John Krumm wrote, I remember a while back that Nikon had Ashton Kutcher do a bunch of ads for their cameras. I always thought he was a flaky asshole, and I remember thinking that him doing ads for Nikon made me think of their products as being a little flaky or not very serious as well, and it almost put me off of Nikon.
Somtimes maybe it isnt such a bright idea to use somebody just because they are famous.
Danish musician Kim Larsen said (in connection with him campaigning a little bit against beer-sponsored free concerts):
"If I'm broke and the rent is due, I'll do anything. But those are not the ones they come to, they come to those who are already successful and say: 'hey, can you come and make us a bit richer?'"
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I got the impression from William Gibson books that Japan is odd in the way that any US start is great for commercials, even is their show/films haven't even been shown in Japan!
Indeed, the Kevin Spacey ad was bad. Hard to believe he is a good actor. But then who can convincingly say "Camera ciao, picture wow" ?? (At least nobody over 20.)
I could be wrong, but I'm fairly sure Kevin Bacon had the whole ranch invested in Madoff's ponzi scheme, and is genuinely pretty broke. Let's face it, advertising work is easy money, and if I got offered it I'd certainly do it!
Sure.
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