QOTD: Who's Your Favorite Celebrity Huckster?

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

If a famous person sways your purchasing behaviour, you’re likely an idiot. Actors and other celebs rake in great coin shamelessly hocking products to the teeming masses, be it life insurance, Preparation H, overpriced jeans, or underperforming vehicles. To them, the suitcase of cash emits the siren song, not the product. (Don’t start up about athletes and sports-branded clothing. We’re not going in that direction.)

No company covets celebrity endorsements quite like automakers. Whether it’s longtime Anglophile Tom Brady shilling for Aston Martin or LeBron James’ sudden love for Kia’s spectacularly slow-selling K900, nothing gets eyes on the product faster than having someone famous stand next to it. Surely, none of us would ever fall for such a thing.

Celebrity endorsements, if you want to call it that, only bolsters a non-mouth-breather’s buying decision if it reinforces a previously held position. Already angling for a Chrysler Newport? Well, your favourite star from, say, Barney Miller, agrees it’s a sensible purchase. And several dollars less than Caprice! However, if said celebrity is someone you desire, rather than just respect or admire, it could be argued that there’s some subtle, subconscious influence at work. It it enough to tip the scales in favor of a certain product?

That’s something only you can answer.

The list of celebrity pitchmen (and women) is nearly endless, so you’re spoiled for choice here. There’s the cast members of NBC’s Bonanza or Bewitched selling themselves out to Chevrolet in the 1960s (Robert Vaughn just loves the second-generation Corvair), or Rod Serling’s post-Twilight Zone money grab for Ford’s Thunderbird.

Nice, but what about something the American everyman can really sink his teeth into? What about…a Mazda…from the 1980s? This could be a tough sell to those weaned on Oldsmobiles and Pontiacs. Better get Jim Rockford James Garner on the case.

Sure, he exclusively drove a Firebird Esprit on the show, but that’s only because of a distinct lack of Mazda 323s in the late ’70s.

Garner’s a Grade-A guy, but Dennis Hopper and Sean Connery are likely to get overseas buyers into a new car. Classy.

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • -Nate -Nate on Jul 20, 2017

    Lets not forget Dustin Hoffman hawking the 1966 VW Typ III 'Variant' Fast back Sedan . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGdf9ea2olQ -Nate

  • Nrd515 Nrd515 on Jul 23, 2017

    I don't car who plugs a car, it makes no difference to me. The "ordinary people" Chevy ads are a minor turnoff, but right now, Chevy makes nothing that would interest me, at a price I can afford. I would be in a Tahoe if I could swing one though, or think hard about it, but the price is just crazy.

  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.
  • ToolGuy Ford is good at drifting all right... 😉
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