Celebs in ads: Do you trust Ozzy?

Posted: Monday, August 03, 2009 6:00 AM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
Filed Under: TV commercials

I still find it kind of funny that so many folks write in each summer upset that we're dissecting commercials. First off, why do they care what others discuss? And secondly, I think that the more educated you are about how companies are angling for your money, the better off you'll be.

As a kid, I found a book all about advertising and found it fascinating. It explained the different advertising techniques used by marketers to try to convince you to buy their product. I'd never viewed the ads in quite that way before. I think it was good for me to get this education so early, because now I always mentally classify the ads I see. If you're aware of how exactly the ads are trying to push your buttons, you're less likely to get sucked in.

A rare celebrity commercial win: Ozzy Osbourne for Samsung.

One of the major techniques that we haven't yet discussed? Celebrity endorsement. Companies love to sign up a big star to promote their products. Yet so many of the celeb-product pairings are ridiculous. Carl's Jr.'s/Hardee's campaign showing sexy stars eating burgers is especially stupid, since there's no way they'd have those career-necessary bodies on a diet of drippy burgers.

Sometimes the star isn't even seen, but their voice is used, in hopes that those relaxing familiar tones will sell, sell, sell. It can be fun to pick out the star behind the voiceover, such as Patrick Dempsey for Mazda and State Farm, Tim Allen for Michigan tourism (he's a native), and Kiefer Sutherland for Bank of America. And man, did CNN hit a goldmine by signing on the booming voice of James Earl "Darth Vader" Jones to intone "THIS ... is CNN." 

Often the person in the ad is pretty unlikable, in my opinion, but I guess the company thinks that just seeing a famous face will make us line up like lemmings to buy their product. Jillian Barberie's grating voice and stupid dialogue in her Nutrisystem ad bug me. "I know I'm not your average gal, I love sports," she boasts, then brags "how many girls can do that?" when she catches a football that's apparently lofted to her from maybe a foot away. Sorry, but you're not the only woman in the world who loves sports, and I think a toddler could have made that catch.

Sports figures are frequently in ads, but most of the time they seem self-conscious and squirmy and eager to get back to the field. One notable exception: the not-afraid-to-be-goofy Peyton Manning. I know some people hated it, but I liked the one from 2006 where Peyton and brother Eli were shoving each other while on an ESPN studio tour. (And who can forget one of the classic ads of all time, Mean Joe Greene trading his sweaty jersey for a Coke? Wow, thanks, Mean Joe!)

My favorite celebrity ad these days is a hoot. Rocker Ozzy Osbourne is famous for both mumbling and for being kind of dim (at least in his "Osbournes" days). So his series of ads for Samsung cell phones are hilarious. In one, he uses the phone's texting feature when he can't make himself understood by speaking, and in another ad, uses mapping to find a bathroom he didn't know was there.

Discuss celeb ads -- the good, the bad, and the bizarre -- in the comments.

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