We've all got to make money somehow, and no one's proud of every job they've had, even celebrities. When the cash runs out, we tend to get a little creative
with finding ways to
earn a living
, even endorsing products or ideas we'd never normally use, or admit to using. Below is a list of 10 of the most bizarre celebrity endorsements and promotions,
from a spa-loving reality star touting toilet paper to a model's so-called healthy candy line. They might want us to forget, but there's no way we can
let these go.
list of 10 items
1. Mr. T: Flavor Wave Oven Turbo
: After a career as a professional wrestler and actor, Mr. T tried to get kids to stay in school,
played Santa Claus
to Nancy Reagan at the White House one year, and has appeared in a number of commercials, endorsing all kinds of goods. The weirdest? When Mr. T hosted
his own infomerical plugging the Flavor Wave Oven Turbo, "an amazing invention" that prepares low-fat meals without a lot of mess in the kitchen.
2. James Dean: Safe Driving PSA
: Even after just a few films, actor James Dean became an American icon, known for his moody but charming swagger, youthful carelessness, and remarkable
talent. He died in a car crash after speeding down U.S. Route 66 in California on his way to a car race. But in this PSA, he counsels the public on safe
driving, saying that he's finished speeding. "I find myself being very cautious on the highway," he says. "I don't have the urge to speed on the highway."
When asked to give advice to any young people watching, Dean looks directly at the camera and jokes, "Take it easy driving. The life you might save might
be mine," before chuckling and walking off set. He was dead within months.
3. Joe Perry: Fiery Foods and Barbecue
: Aerosmith's Joe Perry is known as a rock musician through and through, and also a barbecue enthusiast. He's collaborated with Fiery-Foods.com and appeared
on the cover of the January/February 2004 issue of Fiery Foods & BBQ Magazine. The connection started when a Fiery Foods exhibitor whipped up a special
sauce in honor of Perry, and asked the Aerosmith star to come up with a competition for fans who could vie for a chance to win autographed bottles.
4. Randy Savage Slim Jim
: Those Slim Jim commercials from the mid-to-late 1990s starring professional wrestler "Macho Man" Randy Savage are so over the top, they helped earn him
a Harvard Lampoon Man of the Year award from Harvard's humor society. "I always like to keep my favorite snack handy," he growls in a spooky Halloween
voice, before snapping into his Slim Jim.
5. Heidi Klum: Fruit Flirtations candy
: While Heidi Klum was passed over for runway gigs during the heroin chic 90s, she's still become one of the most successful models in the world, in terms
of net worth and personal branding. But the Project Runway host proved that she must not take herself too seriously when she launched a fruit candy, marketed
as being healthy simply because it was low-fat. Packed with sugar and carbs, the candy — called Heidi's Fruit Flirtations — came packaged in a bag that
had a semi-creepy image of Heidi's face emblazoned on it.
6. Kim Kardashian: Charmin toilet paper
: The Kardashian family — while entertaining to watch on shows like E!'s Keeping Up With the Kardashians — have pretty much sold themselves to the PR devil.
They'll promote almost anything, appear at any event, and cheese themselves up in front of the camera all for a few extra bucks and 15 minutes of fame.
But Kim Kardashian took the promotions to the next level when she agreed to promote Charmin toilet paper, actually posing between people wearing Charmin
bear mascot suits at the Times Square "5th Annual Charmin Restrooms Ribbon Cutting Ceremony." The pampered star is always seen in full makeup and hair,
dressed in stylish — if not a little flashy — outfits, making us wonder why she was so ready to endorse a sign that read "Enjoy the Go" in front of a public
restroom in the middle of New York City.
7. Young Joc: Rap Snacks
: Heidi isn't the only star who's released her own line of snack foods. The rapper "Yung Joc" has his own website promoting his Rap Snacks, a crunchy bunch
of Honey Dew Cheese Curls that costs $9.99 for a bag. Yung Joc poses with a scowl on his face, but the line of text under the picture is what's so confusing.
"Reading is fundamental," is a message Yung Joc must have wanted to communicate to his hungry fans as they licked their Honey Dew-flavored fingers.
8. Mikhail Gorbachev: Louis Vuitton
: When Louis Vuitton cast some big-name — and non-fashion — faces in its 2007 luggage campaigns, anyone flipping through a magazine might have been surprised
to see Mikhail Gorbachev fronting an ad for the LV-patterned bags. But after the initial shock, a few media outlets took a closer look at the reading material
peeking out of Gorbachev's Louis Vuitton bag as he is photographed in the back of a car driving past the Berlin Wall. Translated from Russian, the title
of the book or magazine is "Litvinenko's Murder — They Wanted to Give Up a Suspect for $7,000." It's an indirect jab at Vladimir Putin, who was rumored
to have assassinated Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who was killed after eating laced sushi. We've got to ask the same question nymag.com wanted to know:
"is Gorby sending the world secret messages through luggage ads?"
9. Pope Leo XIII: Coca Wine
: At first glance, you might shrug your shoulders at a pope's 1900 endorsement of wine. After all, Catholics drink a lot of wine, and popes haven't always
had the brightest, most ethical reputation throughout world history. But this wine is different, and the world became addicted to it during the turn of
the twentieth century. The seeming addiction probably resulted from the fact that Coca Wine was actually made with cocaine, mixed with ethyl alcohol. The
combination is said to enhance the experience of just doing cocaine, and people around the world went wild for it. Pope Leo XIII even gave Angelo Mariani
— the creator of Coca Wine — an official gold medal from the Vatican and appeared in an ad for the drink, which was also taken to cure illnesses.
10. Antonio Banderas: Nasonex
: Who would have thought that sexy Spaniard Antonio Banderas would also pull off playing a cute little allergy bee? He's been the voice behind the Nasonex
bee for years now, buzzing through flowers and other allergy triggers while listing the benefits and side effects of the nasal spray in his famous accent.
list end
To see the site this list came from, as well as the ads themselves, click the link above.
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