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