The Flagrant Bowel: Calling All Celebrity Sellouts

It's becoming more and more challenging these days for companies to get Americans excited about their brand. Consumers today are fickle about who they allow to enter their three-second attention span worlds, and as a result, marketers must be as aggressive as ever to draw visibility to their products. What better way to do that by harnessing the power of the celebrity!

Recently, the NHL, attempting to come back this year and win the hearts and minds of millions of Americans who barely noticed the hockey lockout last year that caused the entire season to be cancelled, hired two agencies specifically to recruit celebrities to appear at this year's playoffs for the sole purpose of generating PR buzz that will hopefully build some 'street cred' to the sport and spark some interest among the masses. They've already been successful in getting Keifer Sutherland and Denis Leary, two true hockey fans, to produce promo pieces during the playoffs.

Apparently, George Clooney turned down a free ticket and travel to any game anywhere in the country, all expenses paid. He claims to be strictly a baseball, basketball, football fan. I claim he's strictly a chump. I wonder how deep the NHL will dig to find a celebrity willing to take them up on an offer to attend a free game with the VIP treatment? I hear Carrot Top is taking calls.

In another case, the TV upfronts are start this week, the time of year when the TV networks pitch advertisers their upcoming show lineups to secure early advertising dollars 'upfront.'

MTV went out with a bang yesterday and solicited the talent of Jon Stuart, Sarah Silverman, Stephen Colbert (fresh of his White House Correspondent's Dinner gig) and even Dora the Explorer to entertain and lure the suits to spending more benjamins this year for their beloved company. I'm sure these talented folks are compensated well for these speaking engagements, perhaps it's even written in their Viacom contracts to appear, and considering they're pitching for funding for their show, I don't take too much offense by it. However, something seems a little unsanitary in the lengths companies will go to put on such a horse and pony show for the almighty dollar. Am I being a pessimist? A sourpuss? A gloomy Gus? A Debbie Downer? Possibly. After all, MTV is simply 'shaking what their momma gave ya,' but something stinks, and it ain't Robert Downey's ass. For now, I'll take the advice of a wise man's proverb which seems appropriate: 'Don't hate the playa, hate the game.'

And on that note, I'll end with this- there's nothing quite like seeing celebrities endorse foreign products, particularly from those eccentric Japanese...like these: