Whenever I see a commercial on TV for a more “sensitive” product I get curious about the monetary compensation of the actors/actresses. Is there a big difference (or any difference) in pay between going on national television saying, “These crackers are the BEST!” and “I have genital herpes!”?
Or, are most commercial actors so hungry for exposure that any work is good work?
In my experience I doubt it, unless the actor has a very good agent or really, really looks like he/she has genital herpes. 
The actor is not the role, and playing a person who has a disease in a commercial is no different from playing a murderer or a corpse. It’s a job.
Why should the actor be embarrassed? Everyone knows it’s acting.
Of course everyone knows it’s not real. I, as a non-actor, would still not be comfortable going on national TV talking about “my” herpes. I would dread the class reunion…“Hey, there’s ol’ Herpe Joe!” Or, the lady at the bar wondering why I look familiar…oh yeah, herpes!
I guess I wouldn’t be cut out for the commercial acting life.
Mostly.
A guy I was buddies with in high-school was on some weekly CrimeStoppers thing they had as a segment on the nightly news. They would re-enact the crime with “dramatization” at the bottom of the screen, and then ask the public for tips and provided a 1-800 number.
The guy I went to school with played the victim of a mugging in the “dramatization” and a friend of his mom’s called her up to ask if my buddy was okay and to offer her sympathies, because despite the “dramatization, this is totally fake, fake, fake” warning, she still thought he was the real victim.
Personally, I think it would be hilarious to be in a hemorrhoids commercial scratchin’ my butt!
And you would let fear of some lunkhead or service worker making fun of you stop you from pursuing your career? (Why not just avoid the class reunion?) Who gives a shit what random strangers think?
There was a Friends episode where the acting guy did just this and it did not work out well for him. Fiction I know, but it was pretty damn funny.
Well, given that actors, and in particular, ones that make it big, careers DEPEND on that very thing…well, yeah, what strangers think (even stupid ones) does matter.
IF Sean Connery had made it big as Herpes Joe in a national ad campain first, I suspect Bond would not have been the same…
Were that the case we would see a lot more of the ridiculous celebrity A-list endorsements that play in Japan on American TV.
Connery’s biggest visibility in the U.S. prior to James Bond was his role in the Disney flick Darby O’Gill and the Little People. Given a choice, he might have gone with Herpes Joe.
Those Schwarzenegger Japanese ads a brilliant. I don’t know what kind of weird Jekyll & Hyde juice he’s endorsing, but I want some.
I always figured we could really improve the ambiance on national television with one small change in the regulations:
Whatever they’re advertising, they have to show it being used in its intended manner. Period. No exceptions.
Car? We gotta see ya drive it.
Food? We gotta see ya eat it.
Kleenex? We gotta see ya blow your schnoz.
Hemmorriod cream? … You get the idea.
Viola, TV ads would be so much better. Except for watching the two 45 year-olds playing 60 year-olds in the Viagra / Cialis ads gettin’ it on. That might be kinda depressing.
Don’t think I want to watch the toilet paper commercials. :eek:
A friend of mine says it’s a soy sauce.
In relation to the OP’s question I’ve read many news articles where some infamous soap actor talks about being shouted at as they walk down the street after a recent airing of a scene where they do something horrible. Some have reported having things thrown at them or even assaulted, so I think the idea of “people know it’s not real” isn’t true in all cases.
And as a question of my own - how come it appears that all the “only to be screened overseas” adverts with famous western actors always seem to be targetted at Japan? I assume it’s because there is a distinct separation between the Western & Japanese markets (so they don’t get embarassed by the crazy ad?) and perhaps Japan is the only country with a sufficiently high level of disposable income to make the commercials viable?
But if the artist is doing a Japan-only commercial, they must have sufficient brand-awareness in country to make them worth the large sums they are undoubtedly being paid. In that case, why are they apparently unconcerned about diluting their image in the Japanese market, but not the native US or European markets?
I just don’t get it. Any ideas?
My point precisely; the advertisers would be unwilling to create ads for those sorts of products. So you and I would not be subjected to ads for TP, hemmorroid cream, Viagra, etc.
That reminds me of an interview with Peter Krause right after the second to last season of Six Feet Under. He said it was pretty normal that when he’d be jogging, people would stop him and ask him if it was really a smart idea for him to be running with his condition.
Ask Shatner and Nimoy how easy it was to get a job any time in the next 15 years after the original Star Trek ended production. They were all but unemployable.
Trom’s worry was not that such a commercial would hurt his professional prospects but that he would be teased by an ex-classmate and a barmaid. These seem to me to be two completely different things. I suggest that actors don’t take the latter kind of embarrassment into consideration.