History Main / CelebrityEndorsement

* Soccer player Pelé and Viagra, also known as "the Pelé pill". Mercilessly parodied in ''TheSimpsons''.

* Sarah [=MacLachlan=] has done a pair of [[TearJerker infamous ads]] with the ASPCA, panning over shelter dogs while her song "Angel" plays in the background. Since starting, the ASPCA estimates that $30 Million has been raised as a direct result of the ad.

* A quasi-example since he actually made it himself, but in Japan, the biggest selling point of the ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER}}'' trilogy was that it was the work of Creator/ShigesatoItoi, who was at the peak of his popularity at the time; most of the promotional material for ''MOTHER'' made a point of pointing out that it was his creation. In straighter examples, SMAP member Takuya Kimura was all over the advertising for ''[[VideoGame/EarthBound MOTHER 2]]'', and actress Kou Shibasaki discussing [[TearJerker the emotional impact of the game]] was pretty much the entire television commercial campaign for ''VideoGame/MOTHER3''.

* The next step in building the Wrestling/MickieJames empire is drinking Dr. Pepper

** Lampshaded by John Hodgman at a press dinner, in which he referred to the President's "smartphone whose brand name I am contractually obligated not to mention". At the time Hodgman was appearing in a well-known series of Apple ads.

* O.J. Simpson for Hertz, for almost 20 years from the mid-70s until...you know...

* Music/BillyJoel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" climaxes with a reference to the "Rock and roller [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cola_wars#Marketing_campaigns cola wars]]" of TheEighties. This refers to how Pepsi and Coke both frequently hired musicians for their [=TV=] ads in this period, a practice that was outright mocked by Neil Young in his song and video "This Note's for You" in 1989. Pepsi tended to get the biggest names, although no less than three of them proved problematic:
** Music/DavidBowie's ad with Tina Turner (1987) was pulled when he was accused of sexually assaulting a woman after a concert in Dallas (these charges were subsequently dismissed).

** James Garner also shilled for the Beef Council.
* Jay Leno in the Doritos [[https://youtu.be/EyV_OCTW1_E ads]] during the 80's. "Crunch all you want, we'll make more."

* [[Music/TheSexPistols Johnny]] [[Music/PublicImageLtd Rotten]] is advertising Country Life butter.

* Poor, poor Creator/OrsonWelles... Mrs. Paul's Fishsticks.

* Music/KennyRogers endorsed Dole pineapples, until his contract was canceled after some extra-marital shenanigans came into the public eye.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has fully endorsed this route, with commercials staring Verne Troyer, Creator/WilliamShatner, Mr. T, Chuck Norris and more. This is to demonstrate how widespread the game has become, so all of the celebrities you see, actually play the game. Jay Leno has also done this recently -- as one of the "greenskins"

* Shaquille O'Neal, who is more famous for his endorsements than his basketball career.

* Creator/{{Bally}}'s ''Pinball/{{Hardbody'' was endorsed by [[UsefulNotes/{{Bodybuilding}} the first Ms. Olympia,]] Rachel [=McLish=].

* Subverted with Creator/DataEast's ''Pinball/GunsNRoses'' -- while Slash appears prominently in the game's advertisements, it's because he co-designed the game.
* Creator/{{Bally}}'s ''Hardbody'' was endorsed by [[UsefulNotes/{{Bodybuilding}} the first Ms. Olympia,]] Rachel [=McLish=].

* Alyssa Milano, Jenna Fischer, Jessica Simpson, [[strike:Puff Daddy]] [[strike:P. Diddy]] Sean Combs, and Creator/AdamLevine have all done advertisements for the Proactiv line of acne medication.

** Also, Bob Dole.

* ''Blog/TheIslandOfMisfitChristmasSpecials'' had a running gag in which Peter Paltridge sometimes ended reviews by asking, "Does Mary Lou Retton like it?", then presenting a picture of the gymnast expressing either displeasure or enjoyment of the special. (The pictures consist of screenshots of advertisements she did in TheEighties, Photoshopped to include characters from the specials.) Peter's review of ''WesternAnimation/TheRapsittieStreetKidsBelieveInSanta'' ended by revealing that Mary Lou Retton somehow died while watching the cartoon, so the following reviews replaced her with more obscure "celebrities".

* Creator/{{Stern}}'s ''Pinball/{{Ali}}'' pinball table, devoted to boxer Creator/MuhammadAli.

* Ed [=McMahon=] and Dick Clark for American Family Publishers. [=McMahon=] was also once a paid endorser for an insurance company.

* In one of the oddest, and perhaps most ironic, ads of all time, ousted Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev appeared in a Russian-language commercial for Pizza Hut, which later aired in the US.

** One particularly hilarious 2003 ad for Apple's [=PowerBook=] line showed Verne Troyer and [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation Yao Ming]] sitting next to one another on a plane, each with his own computer. The hilarious part: the sub-3-foot Troyer was using the 17" (largest) model, while the 7'6" Yao was using the 12" (smallest) model.

** Music/MichaelJackson was pressured into shilling for Pepsi in 1984 by the rest of his family and wound up severely burned in an accident on the set of one of the resultant ads. Nevertheless, the money was good enough that he continued to shill for them into TheNineties...until he was accused of child molestation. Pepsi chose not to renew their contract with him after he cancelled the remainder of the Dangerous Tour they were busy sponsoring when the charges broke. In 2011, however, DeadArtistsAreBetter came into play and they began using old footage/images of him in their newer campaigns.

* One of the supplements for the horror RPG ''TabletopGame/Chill'' had a series of short adventures hosted by Creator/ElviraMistressOfTheDark.

->''I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite store on the Citadel."''

[[AC:Cars]]

* President UsefulNotes/BarackObama's much-publicized struggle to keep his [=BlackBerry=] in the Oval Office isn't an endorsement per se, but it's certainly not unwelcome publicity for RIM.
** Lampshaded by John Hodgman at a press dinner, in which he referred to the President's "smartphone whose brand name I am contractually obligated not to mention".
*** Possibly justified if you consider the commercials he appears in regularly.

->"''I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite store on the Citadel.''"

** Parodied with Strong Bad's retrospective on the career of the Geddup Noise (an anthropomorphized sound effect of a chair moving across the floor), stating that Geddup is currently retired except for endorsements in bizarre infomercials.

* '''[[VideoGame/GearsOfWar THE COLE TRAIN RUNS ON WHOLE GRAIN, BABY! WOOOOO!]]'''

** Parodied by the Scottish soft drink Irn Bru, with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RwNlLxwSlc an advert]] featuring a FakeBand of aging rock stars with a song that openly declares they're doing this for MoneyDearBoy.

* Humorously sent up by Robert Loggia for Minute Maid orange-tangerine blend, the joke being that of all the celebrities you'd expect a kid to be blown away by, the craggy-voiced guy from ''Film/{{Scarface 1983}}'' has to be pretty low on the list, and yet: ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cssveZvVgOc "WHOA, Robert Loggia!"]]''

** He did it AGAIN with the iPad the day it was announced. 4 days later, presenting at the Grammys, what does he have down his pants? And he still happily shilled for it even after the [[HypeBacklash less than typical reception]] (for an Apple product at least) it got upon its unveiling.

* The 2011 ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' games (''Ocarina of Time 3D'' and ''Skyward Sword'') were promoted by Creator/RobinWilliams and his daughter, largely related to the fact that [[NamedAfterSomebodyFamous the daughter had been named Zelda]] [[OneOfUs after the princess.]]

[[caption-width-right:300:"[[Creator/MuhammadAli I am the Greatest]] ...endorser!"]]

* Creator/BillCosby for Jell-O, Eastman Kodak & Coca-Cola. Whether the Cos likes it or not, ''this'' is the aspect of his career that will probably live on longest in popular culture.