On my way to and from work I pass billboards for a local hospital group featuring a prominent racecar driver, five of them in a twelve mile round trip. When I walk into the hospital there is a larger than life partial cutout of the driver. I am glad they chose Danica Patrick for the campaign rather than Kurt Busch.
Who has made a good spokesmodel and who do you think missed the mark?
There was a thread about a year ago called Most embarrassing celebrity endorsement, and I stand by my selection there:
Jimmy Johnson for Extenze, the male enhancement pill.
If I were to buy Extenze, it sure wouldn’t be because he endorsed it.Then again, both his first and last names ARE slang terms for the body part getting enhanced, so…
Are we talking about celebrity spokespersons, or does this also include characters like Flo (Progressive), Jan (Toyota), etc?
I certainly haven’t been going out of my way to go to Arby’s just because “legendary” detective Bo Dietl has been shilling for them.
If Ricardo Montalbán wasn’t one of the best spokesmen ever, I’ll eat my membership card.
::Rich, Corinthian leather::
Subway’s regular use of Jared to endorse their sandwiches & chain strikes me as one of the worst corporate endorsement choices ever. The guy has no charisma, personality or appeal other than the fact that fifteen years ago or whatever he lost weight by eating at Subway. And that appeals only to Subway, not to the sandwich-buying public.
They keep going back to this schlub, and I just don’t get it. There have to be better ways to promote the quasi-healthy nature of their food than by using this guy.
ETA: But I have to hand it to his agent. He’s managed to wring more life out of the relationship than it ever deserved.
Burger King’s Herb.
Telly Savalas for Players Club. “Tell 'em Telly sent you.” Not sure if this was a good or bad spokesman, but I remember it fondly even though I didn’t really quite understand what he was selling at the time it seemed vaguely glamorous and important.
Or how about the “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV” actor spokesman? That was a laugh.
There’s a new Danica Patrick billboard that is a Photoshop fail unless she has enormous manhands and her right arm is 6" longer than her left. Which could be.
