# Dubious celebrity endorsements **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 13, 2018, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856 "2018-07-13T18:40:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856/21 "2018-07-13T23:12:09Z")
Not that I held him in high regard but I still remember how sad I was at how low Mickey Rooney had fallen at the end of his life, washing make believe dishes while his wife shilled old people insurance. ---
**Author:** ![moojja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@moojja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moojja)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856/22 "2018-07-13T23:32:17Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Not that I held him in high regard but I still remember how sad I was at how low Mickey Rooney had fallen at the end of his life, washing make believe dishes while his wife shilled old people insurance. It was worst than that. Per this article [Mickey Rooney's Final Years](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/mickey-rooneys-final-years-833325) His wife probably made him do the commercial, while hitting him in private. ---
**Author:** ![BobBitchin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@BobBitchin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobBitchin)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856/23 "2018-07-13T23:54:10Z")
For me, if the celeb is known to be doing well finacially, not a guy that blew it all. I think it’s shitty to hawk known bullshit insurance/health products/ get rich schemes for even more money. If they got $20 mill in the bank and/or a hot show…and they’re helping to sell snakeoil and spread stupidity for a few million more, I think they’re pretty shitty ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856/24 "2018-07-14T02:16:28Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > Cosby did a lot of commercials for a lot of products. In fact, until scandal hit, his job as a pitchman ran neck-and-neck with “The Cosby Show” as the thing he was best known for. > > As for recent dubious celebrity endorsements, there’s baseball HOFer Frank Thomas’ hyping of a questionable energy supplement. There’s a thread about this somewhere on the SDMB. > > Also, this thread is about sketchy products whose endorsement by a celebrity end up diminishing the celebrity’s worth. What about the other way around? Are there any products you thought less of because of the celebrity who endorsed them? (“Really? They got _that guy_ to plug this?”) Lee Major’s Bionic Hearing Aid comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856/25 "2018-07-14T02:37:47Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Regarding Henry Winkler, he is probably best known for Happy Days, but many people under, say, 25-30 are only going to know him from Arrested Development and Parks and Rec. Yeah, but not many of the under-30 crowd are likely to be that interested in reverse mortgages ;). The target demographics for that ad skews just a _wee_ bit higher. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856/26 "2018-07-14T03:14:37Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Wilford Brimley for Liberty Mutual, because, you know, “Diabeetus”. Liberty Medical, not Liberty Mutual. They sell medical testing supplies. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856/27 "2018-07-14T03:29:05Z")
I remember when the Rolling Stones were sliced and diced in the early 1980s for having a tour sponsor, which IIRC was a perfume company. Other artists jumped on similar bandwagons, with mixed results. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856/28 "2018-07-14T04:48:38Z")
Ben Stein appeared in a ridiculous [commercial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Zn3Tulb8ns) for a scammy outfit called [FreeScore.com](http://FreeScore.com) (which promised free access to credit reports—which you can get free on your own—but slammed people with [$30 monthly fees](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/free-credit-report-not-so-fast-ben-stein/) if they forgot to opt out after a 7-day free trial). Stein should have known better. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856/29 "2018-07-14T05:00:18Z")
How about a shirtless Pat Boone sitting in a walk-in tub? Singing a peppy little diddy. Burns out my eyeballs, everytime I see it. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856/30 "2018-07-14T05:35:48Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > Also, this thread is about sketchy products whose endorsement by a celebrity end up diminishing the celebrity’s worth. What about the other way around? Are there any products you thought less of because of the celebrity who endorsed them? (“Really? They got _that guy_ to plug this?”) Some hot dog company (Ball Park I think?) got Richard Karn to do some TV and print ads for their new hot dogs in about 2000ish. All I could think of was “The best sitcom character you could get was the straight-laced sidekick of the main character who’s only in a quarter of the episode?” ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856/31 "2018-07-14T06:54:44Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Some hot dog company (Ball Park I think?) got Richard Karn to do some TV and print ads for their new hot dogs in about 2000ish. All I could think of was “The best sitcom character you could get was the straight-laced sidekick of the main character who’s only in a quarter of the episode?” He also does commercials for some kind of self-draining pocket garden hose. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856/32 "2018-07-14T09:58:04Z")
And also some discount flooring company (50Floor?). ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856/33 "2018-07-14T14:47:51Z")
> [@](#): > > Ben Stein appeared in a ridiculous commercial for a scammy outfit called [FreeScore.com](http://FreeScore.com) (which promised free access to credit reports—which you can get free on your own—but slammed people with $30 monthly fees if they forgot to opt out after a 7-day free trial). Stein should have known better. “Ben Stein” and “know better” [do not belong in the same sentence](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ben-steins-expelled-review-michael-shermer/). ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856/34 "2018-07-14T15:23:38Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > Did Henry Winkler’s stock drop at all in your eyes when you learned he was hawking reverse mortgages? Granted, this was the guy who is probably best known for playing the character Fonzie in Happy Days and not some master thespian When you say he’s “not some master thespian,” do you mean to imply that he’s a one-hit wonder or a hack? Winkler is a well-respected journeyman comic actor who has done a lot of roles over the years, including live stage appearances. > [@Cardigan](#): > > I recall Sally Struthers being mocked for doing some sort of humanitarian aid infomercial. _Some sort of …_ … Heh. When I was a kid in the 1980s, Sally Struthers was the premiere celebrity charity spokesperson and any mention of her was to invoke her weepy pleas for contributions to the Christian Children’s Fund. There were _a lot_ of parodies of her on late night and sketch shows. ---
**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:** [July 14, 2018, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856/35 "2018-07-14T16:08:10Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > “Ben Stein” and “know better” [do not belong in the same sentence](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ben-steins-expelled-review-michael-shermer/). Stein was smart enough on one thing: he avoided investing with Bernie Madoff, saying he and his advisers couldn’t figure out how Madoff was getting his returns. > **[They Told Me That Madoff Never Lost Money (Published 2008)](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/business/28every.html)** > > A little delegation from a major investment bank said a money manager of stupendous acumen never lost money. ---
**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:** [July 14, 2018, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856/36 "2018-07-14T16:17:55Z")
Bob Dylan and Victoria’s Secret lingerie. Sounds like an article from the Onion but it happened. But Zimmerman has almost 60 years of pulling our legs ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856/37 "2018-07-14T16:31:16Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > I was kinda surprised when I first saw Mila Kunis doing ads for Jim Beam. I can’t even explain why, it just seemed…odd. Men of a certain age and socioeconomic status sip Jim Beam. Mila looks like she should be drinking jello shots, Cosmopolitans, or chardonnay. Celebrities always have done commercials. I heard they make commercials overseas in Japan and so on for tractor-trailer loads of money. Really ridiculous commercials we never see here in 'Murica. All for money, they need all the money, always. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856/38 "2018-07-14T16:34:16Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > When you say he’s “not some master thespian,” do you mean to imply that he’s a one-hit wonder or a hack? Winkler is a well-respected journeyman comic actor who has done a lot of roles over the years, including live stage appearances. He is also a well-respected and desired producer. My opinion of Mickey Rooney actually went up when I saw his ads for Rainier beer back in the day. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856/39 "2018-07-14T16:35:27Z")
Jane Russell and the cross-your-heart playtex bra. Who the hell is Jane Russell anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856/40 "2018-07-14T17:11:49Z")
Snoop Dogg is selling boner pills. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubious-celebrity-endorsements/817856.md?page=3)