Lou Reed for a Honda motorcycle commercial in 1985 which not only had the music from “Walk on the Wild Side” but Reed appeared in. He was defensive about it but wanted to “expand his audience” (make more money).
Surely you’re joking! :eek:
Joe Namath in pantyhose. 'Nuff said.
I am. Its funny cause my Daddy would do a cat call everytime the commercial came on. We would ask him if he knew her or something. He would give us cryptic answers. So we grew up thinking he had known her. He obviously was a fan.
Erik Estrada trying to sell real estate. I almost feel bad for him.
Ed McMahon hawking Publishers Clearing House HIII - YOOOO, and some life insurance.
nitpick Ed McMahon never worked for Publisher’s Clearinghouse. He worked for a competitor American Family Publishers which tried to compete with the established PCH but went out of business in the 1990s. PCH never bothered to correct it, figuring it was good to have a well established public figure associated with a well established firm, even, helped by not very bright people like Rahm Emanuel perpetuating the myth
I didn’t know that. Here I was all this time hoping Ed McMahon was roasting in hell for shilling for a sweepstakes scam. The gateway that my mother (who had dementia) passed through, costing her thousands of dollars, scammers by the carload, and enough worry, work, and grief to get rid of all of them to shorten my life by 20 years. Well well.
What’s more important is that men who sip Jim Bean want to believe they have a shot with women like Mila Kunis.
The company McMahon shilled for was every bit as “guilty” as Publishers Clearing House. However, most of the complaints I have heard about this sort of thing deal with the Reader’s Digest sweepstakes. I remember one story about a woman who had a roomful of unopened boxes of books from RD, and when asked why she kept buying them, she replied something like, “One of them might have the million dollar prize in it.”
Also note that a common scam is for someone to claim they’re from one of these companies, call a person on the phone, and tell them they have won a large prize, but either (a) it’s something like a car and the person has to send them a check for the taxes first, or (b) they’ll send a check, but ask that they send back a fraction of the money as some sort of fee; when the check bounces, the victim ends up having to pay back the whole amount, including the amount sent to the scammer (it’s a variation of the “I’ll buy the item you are advertising for sale, but I’ll send you a money order for slightly more than the amount, and you send back the difference” scam).
That new “Escape to Margaritaville” musical probably didn’t hurt his bottom line, either. And nothing says “Margaritaville money” more than a purple $500 chip from the Margaritaville Casino - well, the Margartiaville section of the Flamingo Hotel - in Vegas. (Apparently, there’s a “standalone” casino in Tulsa as well.)
Not withstanding, one of the funniest lines I ever heard on TV was on Married, With Children when Al Bundy comes home from work is going through the mail. He holds up an envelope and says, “Oh look! This one says I may already owe Ed McMahon $10,000,000.”
One of my most ethanol-affectionate acquaintances will however just not go for THIS branding exercise.
Steven Seagal advertising the video game World of Warships in full Admiral uniform.
I get it, you were in the Navy in one of your films, but you were a Navy SEAL turned Cook. Then he became a character in the game, also as an Admiral.
What did you think of his 2005 ad for Viagra: “After she’s taken her medication, you take yours!”
[sub]Just kidding, was not a real thing.[/sub]
I remember that, it was Jovan! They rather pointedly did not endorse the product. They did shill for Rice Krispies earlier in their career, though.
This is worth watching just for the mullet.
The cardboard cutouts of MC Hammer in his full sparkly outfit and baggy pants, declaring “Stop Hammer time” while hawking the 3M Command Strips at Staples, always gets a giggle out of me.
Likewise Jimmy Johnson of NFL fame.
Remember when Orson Welles did those Paul Masson commercials back in the early 80’s. In his case he was trying to raise money for other projects and the commercials were a means to an end. And the end product for him was all about the Art. I don’t think we can hold that against him.
Not at all. If he were a hack there wouldn’t be any distance for him to fall. Just that he’s not a Dustin Hoffman.
Welles might not have had to stoop that low (and appear in so many bad big budget movies) if he had treated people better and wasn’t so wasteful earlier in his film career. Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball tried to help him in the 50s. Ultimately it came out fine but far over budget and Ball would always refer to the 5 years Welles lived with us (which was an exaggeration but that was her humor in real life)