Pimping Out Celebs

It's common practice to use celebrity voices as uncredited narrators of commercials. It lends a certain familiarity to a commercial, even when the celebrity is never mentioned or seen in the ad. I've noticed a few examples recently, and thought I'd mention them. It's like a hide and seek game right in the middle of your normal dose of advertising.

Olive Garden, mom from Modern Family.

Zertec, grandpa from Modern Family.

Juliana Margulies, Chase Freedom credit cards.

I'll find videos for those later (maybe probably not), but the point is that the fine line you run with this practice lies in the familiarity.  When your chosen celeb has positive PR, any carry over-thoughts that may be spontaneously generated by the actor's voice will be positive as well.  But if the public figure has been creating a negative buzz in the press, some of that negativity may spill over into your ad, and may muddy thoughts of your brand with vague recollections of leaked sex tapes, nip-slip wardrobe malfunctions or terrible sambas on Dancing with the Stars.  The thoughts may not be so concrete, or so specific as the actual PR fauxpas, but there may be a "weird feeling".  That's a technical term.  Weird feelings are really not good for a brand.  

Luckily, the connection between a brand and a spokesperson's voice is separated by the chasm of non-context.  A familiar-feeling voice talking about allergy medication or a credit loan is honestly fairly unlikely to evoke the drama of last week's tabloids.  For companies, it works nearly as well as a physical appearance, but saves firm's the shame of pulling a line in the wake of an illicit affair or a blood doping allegation (Gatorade, Livestrong, we're looking at you.).