Celebs, the original influencers! The higher tier is associated with luxury items: fashion brands, jewelry, cars, all of that. And then there’s the myriad of products aimed at us, common people. Snacks, iced tea, whatever. We’ve gone through tens and tens of weird celebrity endorsements, struggling to pick only a handful.
Cristiano Ronaldo for Facial Fitness Pao
This 2014 commercial was sooooo unexpected! The gist is this: “In my everyday training sessions, there is one area of my body that I hadn’t been exercising: my facial muscles. That is, until I discovered PAO.” And he decided to film a commercial with it. Keep in mind that this is a thing you have to keep in your mouth and fling it around. Well, we think he was embarrassed to do so since he was the only one to demonstrate how to use it while keeping it in his hands while all the other actors goofed around.
Katy Perry for The Sims 3
She’s not the first celebrity that first pops in our head whenever we think about The Sims franchise so this is why this 2009 collaboration raised a lot of eyebrows. She was co-opted for an expansion pack and she even got to record her “Last Friday Night” hit in Simlish, the official language in the Sims universe.
Justin Bieber for Nicole by OPI
In 2009 Bieber was a gold mine for any marketing move, teenagers bought made anything Bieber-approved sell like hotcakes. So, in the big scheme of things, meaning when you talk about the financial-side of it, it’s only natural for him to be advised to promote whatever they think it could sell. He sold around 1 million bottles of nail polish so apparently his team knew what they were doing.
David Carradine – Yellow Book
A 2006 commercial for Yellow Book when less and less people used it because it was way easier to google stuff than to flip through hundreds of pages. Apparently, the guys from Yellow Book hoped Carradine could be a miracle worker. Talk about weird commercials.
Helen Mirren for Wii Fit
We wouldn’t say this wasn’t a good fit but it was unexpected, that’s for sure. The copy was nice and clean, “I would never have imagined myself exercising through a video console”, yeah, well, the same goes for us. “And now I feel very, very modern. I feel very young.” Ditto.
The Flintstones – Winston Cigarettes
This was pretty bad, even for 1960’s standards. They sponsored the show and had no issue in being upfront about it.
Kim Kardashian for Charmin toilet paper
We had to double check this, apparently we missed the news back in 2012 when this partnership was unveiled. At the Charmin’s restroom holiday pop-up. Times Square. Let that sink in. Before you flush.
Eminem for Brisk
The endorsement was revealed at the 2011 Super Bowl and while his vocals were spot on, the collaboration kinda seemed forced. I mean, you’re pairing a hugely popular rapper with a cold tea.
Method Man for Sour Patch Kids
This was more than a commercial, it was a full on rap song. Appropriately called “World Gone Sour”, it had one purpose: to get everyone to like SPK, even the bad boys.
Brad Pitt for Pringles
Somehow this had problems hitting close to home. You have Brad looking super, uber fit snacking on a can of ultra processed potato snacks. Kinda of an overreach, me thinks.
John Cena for Crocs
This was as weird then as it is now. An unexpected effect of this collaboration was and still are the endless times men tag their wives on social media to reason with them, hoping their partners will “let” them wear Crocs.
Bob Dylan for Victoria’s Secret
Yep. Good old Bob Dylan said in 1965 that if he ever sold out to a commercial interest, it would be for “ladies garments.” Fast forward to 2007 when this commercial surfaced.
Miranda Kerr for Japanese Iced tea
Japanese commercials have their own league, you always expect to be a twist, something weird is involved. This is just like that: weird, but with a pretty model (you can do a Google search for this commercial to see what we mean). Yay, let’s all go for Lipton.
Waka Flocka for PETA
Whoever was in charge of the copywriting team did wonders here. The bold “Ink, Not Mink” statement in a collab between PETA and rapper is unexpected.
Ozzy Ozbourne for Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter
It seems the 2000s had wild commercials and this once again proves it. We don’t know who looks at Ozzy and thinks “Yeah, he would look great in a palm-oil margarine ad!” Ozzy would slap some butter on his toast and call it a day.
Kardashian Family for Mastercard
Aww, the Kardashian Kard that saw the light of day in 2010. High monthly fees, withdrawal fees, transfer fees, fees, fees, fees. When less than 300 people signed-up for this financial mayhem, the whole project was canceled.
Steve Harvey for Woodoku
Woodoku is a sudoku and wood puzzle game, a very popular game. And Steve Harvey thinks it will “unleash your brain’s full potential.” More and more celebs promote apps, this is no news. The choice of game was rather surprising, we would have expected to see a trivia app, at most.
Mary Kate and Ashley for Aquafresh Toothpaste
The OG influencers had their face plastered on a toothpaste. Aquafresh was big in 2003, so big that they managed to get the Olsen twins to partner up. However, at the time, they seemed to be pretty much everywhere.
Paris Hilton for Carl’s Jr
In 2005 we had the pleasure of seeing Paris washing a car all while eating a cheeseburger in a very PG way. If you’re a fan, google is your friend, she featured in more than one commercial for this brand.
Sonny and Cher Bible ad
This one is just as hilarious as you would have expected just by reading the title. “The people who make music today read the Bible. It’s that kind of book. It can make things work for you. Read the Bible. Find out where all the music is coming from. And if you don’t have a Bible of your own, we’ll send you one for only a dollar. Hard cover and everything. Just one should do it. The Bible lasts a long time.” We don’t even know where to start, we’re just gonna say the 70’s were a wild time and leave it at that.
Princess Anne’s son doing an ad for Chinese milk
His serious demeanor, his composure, his clothing, you would have expected him to have an upsell catch phrase for an investment scheme. Nope, it’s all about milk.
Tom Hiddleston for Centrum
Tom can do no wrong in our book, so all we’re going to do is to point ALL our fingers to the team that came up with this awful script. He comes off as creepy, at best.
This was our list of weird celebrity endorsements that raised eyebrows. We hope you’ve remembered some or found out about a few weirder ones. You can always bookmark this page and return to it when you’re in need of something fun 😉
