Advertisers Relying More On ‘Safe Bets’ Dead Celebrities Pitch Products For Companies Playing It Safe

Old celebrities never die because Madison Avenue won’t let them.

Advertisers eager for attention increasingly are using advanced technology to bring dead celebrities back as product pitchmen.

Dirt Devil has enlisted Fred Astaire to dance with its vacuum cleaners, while Coors has tapped John Wayne and the cast of the old TV western “Bonanza.”

Mercedes-Benz North America is in line to become the latest advertiser to dust off a dead celebrity with a commercial inspired by “The Ed Sullivan Show.” In the ad, the legendary TV personality appears to hype Mercedes.

Mercedes-Benz said Friday that it is delaying the debut of its ad because of the death of Princess Diana, who died in a car crash while riding in a Mercedes.

Dead celebrities allow advertisers to tap into feelings of nostalgia about times spent gathered around the television watching classic shows - an emotion that reverberates with baby boomers in particular.

“It is that warm feeling going back to when we were younger,” said Michael Kamins, a professor of advertising at the University of Southern California.

With dead celebrities - who can no longer get arrested or offend consumers - advertisers know who they’re getting. Latching on to celebrities such as Chicago Bulls guard Dennis Rodman can prove embarrassing to advertisers.

“With dead celebrities, their qualities are known,” said Tom Cordner, creative director of Team One Advertising in El Segundo, Calif. “They can’t get you in trouble. They’re a safe bet.”

A pitfall for advertisers is that dead celebrities can overshadow the product they are being used to pitch.

Images of Hollywood icons such as Marilyn Monroe and James Dean have long been turning up in ads. Digital technology developed in recent years allows advertisers to manipulate video images of dead celebrities to the point where they appear to hold products being pitched and - with help from voice impersonators - verbally endorse them.

In the case of Mercedes-Benz, technicians at Digital Domain in Los Angeles animated Sullivan’s jaw so it appears that he is introducing the Mercedes M-Class sport-utility vehicle. A voice impersonator said the words.

For all the technical magic, dead celebrities aren’t always successful as pitchmen. Braun Appliance Co. said a spot last winter that used late comedian Jackie Gleason to pitch a hand mixer was “marginally successful” and aired for about two months.

Service Merchandise, a discount retailer, last year dropped a series of ads featuring Lucille Ball, Fred Gwynne (as Herman Munster) and Jack Webb (of “Dragnet” fame) nearly as quickly. The company was discouraged in part because Webb’s image showed up in an ad for Lotus software around the same time.

Dead celebrities work best in ads when the connection to the product is clear. Advertising critics have questioned the link between Astaire and Dirt Devil vacuums since the campaign was launched on the Super Bowl in January.

Observers say that as technology advances, dead celebrities will probably show up more often in advertising.

Said USC’s Kamins, “It would not surprise me to see maybe 10 years from now Princess Diana in an ad.”