Hollywood stars earn big money in Italian adverts

Hollywood stars earn big money in Italian adverts

By Rory Carroll

ROME: Marlon Brando has boarded a Hollywood gravy train to
Italy to appear in adverts that earn fistfuls of dollars but
safeguard thespian reputations by remaining unseen in America.

From this Sunday, Italian television viewers will see him
squinting into the middle-distance, pondering the wonders of
communication technology and endorsing Telecom Italia.

The communications giant was euphoric at wooing the semi-
recluse, who is famed for pickiness over his acting roles.

The slimmed-down Brando, who wears a black hat and looks
moodily into a Californian desert sun, is said to have been paid
well over US$1.5 million. He follows Richard Gere, Harrison Ford,
Catherine Zeta Jones and Brad Pitt in succumbing to the lucrative
and discreet charm of Italian advertising.

"If Brando did this in the States his image would be
tarnished," said Tony Villani, professor of film at the American
University of Rome. "He would risk being misunderstood as a has-
been who has no other job offers and has to resort to
commercials."

The newspaper Corriere della Sera said Tuesday that US film
stars were responding to huge pay cheques and the expectation
that their credibility would escape unscathed. Italian television
tends to be unwatched abroad because of its reputation for woeful
quality and tacky game shows.

Gere, whose fans pay to see him play officers, gentlemen and
millionaires, agreed to play a butler in an advertisement for
Ferrero Rocher chocolates.

At a performance of La Traviata, an ambassador's guest asks
for a sweet, whereupon Gere, whose character is called Ambrogio,
steps from behind a curtain with a silver salver heaped with the
chocolates.

The astounded guest says "But aren't you... ", and the actor
replies "Ambrogio". Gere reputedly pocketed $1.2 million for the
cameo.

Contracts for such commercials often contain a clause
specifying that they cannot be shown in the US.

In the mid-1990s Hollywood stars were paid huge sums to make
commercials seen only in Japan. Arnold Schwarzenegger advertised
a television channel and heaved a dozen kettles above his head to
promote Cup Ramen, an equivalent of Pot Noodle.

Dennis Hopper sat in a bubble bath to promote soap and
Sylvester Stallone endorsed ham. Japan's recession has clipped
the lucre, but Italian advertisers are on a roll.

Robert De Niro broke a self-imposed ban on promotions to play
an industrialist who orders Beghelli light bulbs, which change
their intensity according to the daylight available.

Pitt was persuaded to rest his head on a model's bosom for the
sake of Italian jewelry designer Damiani, Ford revived a bonsai
tree by taking it for a spin in a Fiat Lancia, and Zeta Jones
glowed with pleasure at the thought of an Alfa Romeo.

However, a backlash is stirring as advertising analysts warn
clients that matching a celebrity to an inappropriate product
wastes their allure and confuses consumers.

Salvatore Sagone, of the magazine Advertising Italy, said the
Hollywood imports were a virus. And like a fever, they would
eventually pass away, he said.

-- Guardian News Service