Fifteen years ago US television viewers were introduced to this little Cockney reptile…
The campaign must have been fairly successful because the Geico Gecko still pops up in the insurance company’s commercials from time to time. Never mind the fact many Americans thought he was supposed to be Australian, people seemed to like the concept despite not recognizing the accent.
Since that time more and more British accents have been showing up in our commercials, now in the form of actual celebrities. While I’m happy about this trend, it surprises me to some extent because whenever I mention British actors in conversation, I still get an excessive number of blank looks from my non-Anglophile friends. Considering that the singular goal of advertisers is to flog their wares to the most customers possible, using talent unknown to the buying public seems counterproductive.
Therefore I must extrapolate from this current advertising strategy that despite the relative unfamiliarity my social circle seems to have with British celebrities, they must have increasingly begun to enter the general public’s consciousness. Either that or these personalities work for much than their Yankee counterparts.
Here is the most recent and, in my opinion, baffling “star” to appear in an American advert…
Everyone I know is sick of the Kitchen Nightmares’ marathons aired on BBC America literally everyday. Seeing Gordon Ramsay hawking plans for smart phones makes me want to not switch to AT&T. Truth be told they’ve stripped him of his greatest asset, his swearing rants. Without the bleeping, he really isn’t interesting at all.
Not long ago internationally acclaimed and Oscar-nominated English actor Gary Oldman appeared in this promotion for, you guessed it, a smart phone, though he really doesn’t do much to convince viewers to buy it. Mr. Oldman is well known in the States and we’ve seen a lot of him recently in films such as Robocop, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and the Dark Knight series (all three in which he plays an American). Who knows? Maybe this isn’t his native accent either.
David Beckham represented Burger King’s new line of fruit smoothies capitalizing on his physical appearance rather than his athletic abilities or career as a footballer, which would have just confused most Americans at that point. You see it wasn’t until the 2014 World Cup that football (as the rest of the world knows it) was covered by the media in any significant way.
Could Ann Coulter of the black mini-cocktail dress find even a modicum of moral decay in an advertisement like that? Probably.
A couple of years ago comedian John Cleese endorsed American satellite provider Direct TV in this delightfully silly commercial that made him out to be some sort of eccentric English gentleman, a stereotype American audiences still embrace.
And speaking of stereotypes, Jaguar poked fun at our tendency to see Brits as villains. This ad was premiered during the 2014 Superbowl, the most coveted and expensive advertising slots on US television. While many will know Sir Ben Kingsley, I doubt Mark Strong and Tom Hiddleston are household names in the US quite yet.
Perhaps the best proof that America is truly in the midst of a British invasion is the Scott lawn care company’s newest campaign. They now have a Scot named Scott (Phil McKee) as their spokesman, a bold move since Scottish dialects are often more incomprehensible to American ears than English ones are…
So what can we conclude from this hodgepodge of commercials and what they say about America’s growing appetite for British culture? At least the way the advertising execs and their focus groups see it, Brits can sell us luxury cars, products in the personal technology market and pseudo-healthy fruit beverages as long as they either reinforce the cliches we foster about them, support soccer mom fantasies or have a national identity that is similar to the name of the company they are endorsing.
Oh and apparently you have to be man. The only British woman I can think of in any recent ad is a silent Keira Knightly.
What commercials have I forgotten? Feel free to share links to any clips you find. I’d also be interested to know how often American celebs appear in UK adverts? Comment early and often!
Everything I Know about the UK... I Learned from the BBC 
All I can think of, off the top of my head, is that we have Kevin Bacon. Since Bernie Madoff made off with all his money apparently he can’t be too fussy and has become the face of EE phones or mobiles or something. He’s done quite a few ads with one at least referencing all his old films.
I do remember Kevin Spacey in something, maybe briefly, but I think he’s practically British these days isn’t he?
We also have Usain Bolt selling Richard Branson Virgin something or other. I know he’s not American, but to us he’s not that far off, and holds the same sort of foreign glamour.
I know Spacey spent about a decade there as the artistic director of the Old Vic.
Interesting about Kevin Bacon though. I guess he doesn’t make any money from the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game…
Not the one I was looking for, but if you’re a big KB fan then it may bring back some memories.
Here’s the original.
Ten years ago we did have at least a couple very eloquent Samuel L Jackson adverts for Barclay’s Bank. I don’t know if they’re exclusive to us, but they stuck out at the time because of the big name Hollywood actor. Recently he’s done a less quality one (for something) in his Avenger’s character. Thinking about it we also had Bruce Willis not so long ago for some sort of phone/internet company.
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=video&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCoQtwIwAg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D5oAY3Eoyr9o&ei=bJXaU–QIseM7Aa8_ICAAQ&usg=AFQjCNFSGkCI4tE-LKNKqkwWmB5ZqeA1rw
Samuel L. Jackson is currently the spokesman for Capital One credit cards in the US. I liked the Barclay’s advert you sent along – sort of artsy!
It’s been interesting thinking about this – you did say comment often – and we also have had George Clooney selling coffee or coffee machines. But it’s not a fun campaign like the Samuel L Jackson ones and not worth digging out the video for.
My dear FM, your comments are always most welcome. Besides when you share I gain even more than what I’ve learned from the BBC.
George Clooney has done a few voice overs here but he doesn’t appear in person.
Then just for you here it is. I see now there are more, but they don’t seem British adverts at all so perhaps he covers Europe or something.
Plus I see now – bizarrely – that Matt Damon has also got in on the act. They are really trying to push “Nespresso” as the normal middle class sort of life. I read a book by Dom Jolly (Trigger Happy TV) which was about monster hunting around the world and at the start he started banging on about waiting for the “Nespresso man” to come and deliver them refills for their coffee machine. I can’t tell you, as soon as I worked out what he was talking about, how much I hated him from then on lording it over us.
And another for you – you did ask – we also have Antonio Banderas in some really tacky mint adverts. There are some adverts that just look “foreign” and like we’re being sold them on the cheap. This is pushing it. I see now it was made in Australia.