A powerful endorsement from a celebrity is one of the most coveted advertising strategies for diverse products. It quickly builds trust, increases awareness, and triggers those “mirror neurons” that tend to copy what we see others do, especially those who we like or admire.
This episode of my blog is dedicated to those advertisers that will not stop at a minuscule detail, as lack of budget or death, to get the spokesperson or endorser they want for their product.
Client: Dior
Ad Creative Agency: TBWA / Paris
Why do we like it? It mixes icons of beauty and glamour from different Hollywood generations thanks to the miracles of computer generation.
Why is it one of the best? Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Marlene Dietrich… it is not as if a minor detail such as death would stop getting the Hollywood glamour best-of-the-best together to celebrate Dior’s new perfume! And if you were wondering… not, their images are not public domain just because they are no longer alive.
Client: Dove Chocolate
Ad Creative Agency: BBDO (Framestore in charge of the CGI)
Why do we like it? It brings back a time when the world was in Technicolor. The simple presence of Audrey Hepburn can make magic out of a scene where two Italians fight in a traffic incident (which in real life is not half as glamorous, take my word for it!)
Why is it one of the best? This TV commercial premiered at the Oscars. It was classified by some as “creepy” but it generated quite an amount of publicity and comments. In any case, it leaves us with a smile in the face and warmth in the heart… just like chocolate!
Client: Johnnie Walker Blue Label
Ad Creative Agency: BBH China
Why do we like it? It brings back the “Master of Cool under Pressure”, Bruce Lee.
Why is it one of the best? Bold move, not without a big amount of controversy. Would Bruce Lee promote alcohol? Did he really speak Mandarin? or Cantonese? Aside from the controversy, the CGI starts becoming much more credible than in past attempts to recreate human faces.
The pioneers:
In 2005, two ads started the CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) “movement” to rescue celebrities from the eternal sleep. They would not dare to try to model a whole human being, but they combined rotoscoping and masking with morphing and other techniques to give the first steps into this ad strategy:
Steve McQueen with Mustang
and Gene Kelly with Volkswagen
Beating the second biggest problem (after death): lack of budget.
Client: Jack FM (Vancouver)
A Celebrity-look-alike-galore. I will leave it up to your own conclusions.
Client: Ocean Spray (Australia)
Like, totally.
Client: B.J. Lawson (Political)
This spot involved a public apology for using a Morgan Freeman voice impersonator.
Client: Old Navy
This spot involved a legal settlement between Kim Kardashian and Old Navy.
“Can your audience pay $5 for my product?”
Almost a decade ago, this was the question we received from a local client. It might not have been politically correct, but it was a fair question from a businessman that was candid about his ignorance of our consumer. It is one of those questions that punches our pride, as it is the epitome of the stereotypes we fight hard to eradicate. But then you take a deep breath, count to ten, and think that a passionate reaction will get you nowhere: unwrapped of every passion and political correctness, it is a fair business question from a business man that does not know much about your audience.
Rather than reacting to it with a bunch of slides on statistics of over indexing buying power, household income, and economic contribution growth, my coworkers proceeded (masterfully) to educate this client with a hands on experience that he would never forget.
If memory serves, they took the client to one of the zip code areas with a higher concentration of our audience members. They visited three local stores with this client: a supermarket, a wardrobe store, and a car accessories shop. Then the miracle happened: the client saw how, in a couple of hours, members of our audience would spend hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars, for products they liked. And I am talking about spending a thousand dollars (many times cash) in ONE wearable product they liked!