‘I Can’t Believe It’s Another Celebrity Endorsement!’
By: The Isthmus
Tags: Consumer, Business, Celebrity

Today’s celebrities have their own range of signature fragrances, clothing lines and get-fit-quick DVDs.

Hell, some even have their own make of Land Rover.

But what makes us, as the consumer, fork out exorbitant amounts of money to own these celebrity-branded products?

Marketing specialist Professor Henry Assael claims endorsements work best when the product is readily identifiable with its celebrity promoter.

So of course it makes sense to see young females buying a GHD hair straightener, with Katy Perry as the brand’s ambassador.

Proactiv hit the nail on the head when they signed Justin Bieber up to promote its skincare line.

The company’s 1300-number would have been clogged with calls from parents of pimply-faced pre-teens.

But what about the failed — or just plain weird — brand-celebrity partnerships?

And trust me, there are quite a few.

For some celebrities, it’s not all about the money (but for the most part, it is).

According to eHow, celebrities realise their star won’t shine forever, but by partnering up with a brand, their star will shine a bit brighter, for a bit longer.

As well as the additional public exposure, celebrities manage to score themselves a lot of freebies from their extra co-curricular activities.

Just look at Lara Bingle.

In her recent television series, ‘Being Lara Bingle’, she was asked to feature in a commercial for Air New Zealand’s latest campaign.

She managed to get an all-expenses-paid trip to New Zealand, not only for herself, but for her two best friends.

While the ad is a bit lengthy, and not quite as memorable — or controversial — as her ‘So where the bloody hell are you?’ ad, she managed to do quite well out of it.

So with all these extra benefits, I guess it’s not so weird that celebrities are willing to pen their name to almost anything.

And here’s a few examples of this…

Ozzy Osbourne

Black Sabbath front man Ozzy Osbourne is seen baking fairy cakes in a commercial for ‘I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!’.

Known for his bizarre antics, such as soaking a room in shark’s blood, I find it unlikely that Ozzy would ever release his inner-domestic goddess and bake fairy cakes.

More to the point, I don’t think he would think twice about what type of butter to include in his cake batter.

Now I am not sure if the product’s maker, Becel, is trying to attract more metal music lovers to its butter substitute, or broaden its product’s target market, but it’s just not working for me.

This ad had Martha Stewart’s name written all over it.

Shannen Doherty

Probably best remembered for her role as Prue Halliwell in the television series Charmed, Shannen Doherty has a crack at promoting Education Connection.

Education Connection is an online database, listing all on- and off-campus degrees, for would-be tertiary students across America.

“Now I’m actually getting my degree in Liberal Arts… online,” Shannen says.

Why would the ‘girl next door’, ‘girl-not-so-next-door’, producer, and director need a Liberal Arts degree?

While I can’t think of any celebrity that would be best-suited to a higher education commercial, Shannen isn’t making me want to jump online to educationconnection.com any time soon.

Karl Lagerfeld

Creative director for fashion house Chanel, 79-year-old Karl Lagerfeld collaborated with Coca-Cola in 2011.

Designing the bottles of Diet Coke himself, one bottle retailed for $5 USD or there was the option to buy a $80 USD box-set, which included one Karl Lagerfeld-designed bottle of Diet Coke, a display box and bottle opener.

You can even buy three bottles of the Karl Lagerfeld Diet Coke for $42 AUD, plus $32 AUD for shipping, on eBay — bargain!

As Andy Warhol once said: “A Coke is a Coke, and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking.”

Perhaps not Coca-Cola’s best move.

Mikhail Gorbachev

‘Who?,’ most people would say.

He is the former General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Now what do him and Pizza Hut have in common?

Not much.

Pizza is from Italy; Pizza Hut is American.

He is neither Italian nor American.

In the television commercial, Pizza Hut is trying to promote its latest creation, ‘The Edge’ pizza: a pizza with no crust –the toppings go all the way to the edge.

The commercial, spoken predominantly in Russian, has diners, at what I assume is Pizza Hut, discussing Mikhail’s political past.

One diner shouts they are ‘on the edge of economic ruin’ and the ‘edge of chaos’ because of him.

So really, aside from the new pizza being called ‘The Edge’, the person and the product really have nothing in common.

Now back to marketing 101.

In its ‘5 Tips to Get Celebs to Endorse Your Business’, the Devin James Group, a brand strategy and communications agency, reiterate Professor Assael’s point.

“Do your homework, make sure the product and the talent go together and the endorsement will make sense,” the group writes.

So what was Becel thinking when they asked Ozzy Osbourne to represent its product?

No matter how ridiculously silly the commercials were, Fabio gelled better with the brand.

More housewives probably bought the product, too.

Here’s hoping Ozzy got something more than just a lifetime’s supply of ‘I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!’ out of this.

There’s always going to be companies who get it right and companies who get it wrong.

So at the end of the day, leave it to the product experts.

Buy yourself a copy of qualified personal trainer Michelle Bridges’ ‘Tight Toned Terrific’ work-out DVD, not Kim Kardashian’s scripted ‘Fit In Your Jeans by Friday’.