# American actors in foreign (but not US) commercials.  Why?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-actors-in-foreign-but-not-us-commercials-why/568675>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 23, 2011, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-actors-in-foreign-but-not-us-commercials-why/568675 "2011-01-23T18:04:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-actors-in-foreign-but-not-us-commercials-why/568675/21 "2011-03-31T22:34:54Z")

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The available tv time world wide is huge. The market demands new ads frequently, the size of the marketplace for consumer goods is skyrocketing. The pay goes up, the job is more attractive. Lawrence Olivier was once asked why he accepted jobs on TV, since that was considered a step down from movies and theater. His answer, “It pays well, and it’s so damned easy.”

Tris

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**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-actors-in-foreign-but-not-us-commercials-why/568675/22 "2011-04-01T03:02:05Z")

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> [@Prelude\_to\_Fascination](#):
>
> I’m going by memory, so details may be fuzzy, but I’m not making this up. Back in the 70s I guess, Bob Newhart had a bit about this, before actors really sold out: he began by saying Eleanor Roosevelt made a splash by appearing in an ad, but it was okay, because her salary went to a charity.
> 
> The bit got funny when he took a huge celebrity (Laurence Olivier) and, due to time constraints, didn’t get a chance to read the script, so Sir Laurence had no idea what product he was pushing.

That bit isn’t on any of Newhart’s CDs. That’s not to say he didn’t do it, of course. If he did, it was prompted by Olivier’s ads for Polaroid cameras, which were shown only in the USA.

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**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-actors-in-foreign-but-not-us-commercials-why/568675/23 "2011-04-01T13:28:43Z")

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Didn’t Cher say that her acting career was derailed by doing an infomercial which ran and ran and ran? Lori Davis hair products or some such thing.

Laurence Oliver may have gotten away with it because there were a number of articles in the 1970s saying he was opening appearing in horrible films like “The Betsy” in order to leave a large enough estate for his family when he died. Plus people thought a Shakespeare male actor could get away what a woman with a cheesy pop music/Vegas/uncool non drug user couldn’t.

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**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-actors-in-foreign-but-not-us-commercials-why/568675/24 "2011-04-01T13:59:10Z")

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Sometimes it feels like it’s just done for shits ‘n’ giggles (as well as the money, obviously).

Marcia Cross [advertises](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XXPhai21Us)a brand of potato in the UK, and it’s a deliberately offbeat advert.

i.e. It parodies the usual glam celeb endorsement ads to sell a mundate item (and it doesn’t come much more mundane than spuds).

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