This morning I saw a commercial with Billy Mays. The sucker’s been dead for 6 months but he’s still hawking items on the tube.
Are there any other dead people out there still actively selling things? I remember seeing Charles Atlas in comic books in the 70’s, and I believe Colonel Sanders was in a few ads after he assumed room temperature. But those are going back quite a bit. Any dead folks currently still on?
That’s surprising (the Billy Mays thing)…I haven’t seen a Billy Mays ad since shortly after he died. Kaboom now has some generic young woman’s disembodied voice doing the shilling. I’m also pretty certain that I’ve seen Oxyclean ads without the Shouting Man.
flicks runner pat’s ear
Stop that!
Don’t know if they are doing it now but back in 2001 the heirs of Martin Luther King and Lou Gehrig were hawking Alcatel using images from the “I have a dream” and “Luckiest man alive” speeches.
And, John Wayne, Fred Astaire and one or two others were digitally inserted into some ads a few years ago.
There was that DirectTV commercial about a month back featuring Chris Farley. I think they stopped it after enough people complained.
I remember reading an interview with Billy Mays’ son to the effect that they still show classic movies with dead actors, and his dad would’ve wanted the same. Probably also influenced by residual payments, no doubt.
When Billy Mays died, I was hoping for sweet relief from his annoying voice. I’m still waiting.
The “Empire Today” guy isn’t dead yet, but I’ve noticed they now have an animated version of him. No doubt Toon-Empire-Today-Guy will live on for a looooong time.
Charlie Chaplin was advertising IBM computers in the early 80s; he died in 1977.
The Smith Brothers hawked their cough drops for decades after their deaths.
Well, I imagine most living artists haven’t released posthumous albums.
Near the drugstore I use, there is a “As Seen on TV” store. It has a Billy Mays for President poster in the window, which I find really creepy.
Yes, I just had to tell you that.
Didn’t Smiling Bob of Enzyte disappear in a boating accident a year or so ago? I still see him up and about on TV.
(Bolding mine.)
You, go sit in the corner for that terrible pun (even if it was punintentional).
This was no boating accident!!!
And on it goes:
Larry King dead going on 4 years.
Elmer Hauldren dead 13 years.
Bill Mays dead 15 years and he’s STILL selling stuff.
They’re still using Jimmy Dean’s voice to sell sausage.
Are we counting likenesses, or actual people? Because KFC still uses the image of Colonel Sanders, and sometimes an actor portraying him.