Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S2E21 - Nobody's Dead Anymore: Marketing Deceased Celebrities

Episode Date: May 25, 2013

It’s become a $2 billion dollar industry. And the marketing of dead celebrities not only attracts lots of big brands, but lots of controversy.We’ll trace the use of dead celebrities in advertising, we’ll analyze “Dead Q Scores,” we’ll list the top-grossing dead celebrities, and we’ll tell some amazing stories about ads that featured Audrey Hepburn, Michael Jackson, Fred Astaire and Marilyn Monroe – and how their families felt about those commercials. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly. As you may know, we've been producing a lot of bonus episodes while under the influences on hiatus. They're called the Beatleology Interviews, where I talk to people who knew the Beatles, work with them, love them, and the authors who write about them. Well, the Beatleology Interviews have become a hit, so we are spinning it out to be a standalone podcast series. You've already heard conversations with people like actors Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and Beatles confidant Astrid Kershaw. But coming up, I talk to May Pang, who dated John Lennon in the mid-70s. I talk to double fantasy guitarist Earl Slick, Apple Records creative director John Kosh. I'll be talking to Jan Hayworth,

who designed the Sgt. Pepper album cover. Very cool. And I'll talk to singer Dion, who is one of only five people still alive who were on the Sgt. Pepper cover. And two of those people were Beatles. The stories they tell are amazing. So thank you for making this series such a success. And please do me a favor, follow the Beatleology interviews on your podcast app. You don't even have to be a huge Beatles fan. You just have to love storytelling. Subscribe now and don't miss a single beat. In case nobody's told you, weight loss goes beyond the old just eat less and move more narrative. And that's where Felix comes in. Felix is redefining weight loss for Canadians with a smarter, more personalized approach to help you crush your health goals this year.

Losing weight is about more than diet and exercise. It can also be about our genetics, hormones, metabolism. Felix connects you with online licensed healthcare practitioners who understand that everybody is different and can pair your healthy lifestyle with the right support to reach your goals. Start your visit today at Felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X dot C-A. From the Under the Influence digital box set,

this episode is from Season 2, 2013. You're so king in it. You're loving it in style. Your teeth look whiter than noon, noon, noon. You're not you when you're hungry. You're in good hands with us. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. 26 miles from Palm Springs in Indio, California,

a large event is staged every year. It's called the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Started in 1999, it's a big two-weekend gathering that draws over 80,000 people a day. Nearly 180 musical acts perform. And while the festival has hosted big names

like Paul McCartney, Madonna, and Foo Fighters, it's also an important showcase for emerging artists. Over the years, the festival has had many standout performances, but none was more famous than one particular event that occurred last year. During the closing night concert, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg were joined on stage by hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur. You may not think that's so earth-shattering, except that Tupac died 15 years ago. He appeared as a life-sized hologram strutting across the stage and stunned the crowd by yelling out, What's up Coachella?

What's up, Coachella? What's up, Coachella? Yeah! Machiavelli is this! He not only sang and danced with Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, he interacted with them. The jaw-dropping spectacle was created by the same visual effects company that had produced the film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Because of their remarkable advances

in computer imagery and audio, they were able to create fresh movements and new dialogue. As a company spokesperson later pointed out, the Tupac hologram wasn't found footage and it wasn't from an existing archival clip. It was an illusion. And it completely wowed the Coachella crowd.

And it will wow you too when you watch it on our website. It was so astonishing, as a matter of fact, it makes you wonder if a deceased musician could now, theoretically, go out on tour. Dead celebrities have been very busy lately. The advertising industry alone has been resurrecting them for over 20 years. The use of deceased stars

holds a great allure for advertisers. The celebrities remain famous, they never get into trouble, and their good looks are frozen in time. And now with the leaps in technology, they can be made to do and say anything. As a marketing strategy, they attract a lot of money, a lot of attention, and lots of controversy. It's a brand new world, now that nobody's dead anymore. You're under the influence.

At a Hollywood party on the evening of August 16th, 1977, word spread that Elvis had just died at his Graceland mansion in Memphis. Amid the shock, one talent agent broke the silence by saying, Good career move. As Time magazine later noted, rarely has sarcasm been so prophetic, as many celebrities become more valuable in memory than they were in real life. The marketing of dead celebrities has become big business. Some estimates put licensing and royalty figures at an astounding $2.25 billion annually.

In 2008, CKX Inc., a U.S. entertainment firm, paid $100 million for an 85% stake in the Elvis Presley estate. Last year, Marilyn Monroe's image was purchased for a rumored $20 to $30 million by a Canadian marketing firm called the Authentic Brands Group. There's even a term for dead celebs who earn big annual revenues. They're called Delebs. Forbes publishes an annual list of the top-earning dead celebrities, and some of them may surprise you.

In the number one spot, earning a staggering $210 million last year, was Elizabeth Taylor. Most of that came from a one-time auction of her possessions, which raked in over $180 million. But without those auction results, she won't beat out the number two dead celebrity next year. That deleb is Michael Jackson.

The King of Pop, who died in 2009, earned $145 million last year, $90 million more than our number three entry, Elvis Presley. The King of Rock and Roll shook up $55 million in revenue. Dileb number four may also surprise you. It's Charles Schultz. The Peanuts creator earned $37 million, a full 60 years after his comic strip was first published.

Number five is Bob Marley. The reggae star is very diversified in his post-life holdings with a beverage company that sells Marley Mellow Mood relaxation drinks and another that sells headphones and speakers. The leader of the Beatles comes in at number 6, earning $12 million with Yoko at the steering wheel. Marilyn Monroe and Albert Einstein both earned $10 million last year. Monroe died in 1962, and Mr. Einstein bequeathed his estate to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem when he died in 1955.

While clucks come from chickens and quacks come from ducks, the next person on our list took home 9 million bucks. Yes, it's Dr. Seuss, who died in 1991. And rounding out the list of top earning dead celebrities was the king of cool,

Steve McQueen, whose real name was Terry. I'll let you draw your own conclusion there. He earned $8 million. Clearly, the business of marketing dead celebrities is a lucrative one. One of the first advertisers to employ dead celebrities was Diet Coke back in 1991. The TV commercial was staged in a hot nightclub with Elton John leading the band. Then in the crowd we see Humphrey Bogart.

Next, James Cagney sits down beside a beautiful woman and says, All right, let's sample a bottle. I'll make it two. One for you and one for me. And lo and behold, Louis Armstrong does a trumpet solo and says to Elton,

Now is it warm. Diet Coke. The dead celebrities were incorporated using old movie and TV clips. And the technique opened the doors

to a whole new casting conversation. So who do you see in your TV commercial? John Wayne. He's dead. But what does he cost? Yes, now celebrities were wanted dead or alive. But it's not without its controversies. Earlier this year, a new commercial for Galaxy Chocolate came out in the UK.

The bar is made by Mars, hence the name Galaxy. The commercial was titled Chauffeur and starred a young Audrey Hepburn. It's set on Italy's Amalfi Coast in the 1950s. Hepburn is on a bus, which has been stopped in its tracks by an overturned fruit cart. As the bus driver and the fruit vendor argue, a handsome stranger pulls up beside the bus in a convertible and locks eyes with Audrey. He motions her to join him in his car. She pauses to consider the invitation,

then smiles, gets off the bus, mischievously snatches the bus driver's hat, places it on the head of the stranger, and takes a seat in the back of his car. Off they go, stranger as chauffeur, with Hepburn leaning back dreamily to enjoy her galaxy chocolate bar. The techniques used in this commercial were groundbreaking. The 3D team used an extensive archive of over 70 facial movements and built a software model of Hepburn using the star's entire film catalog

plus all available press and documentary photographs. Every shot in the ad entailed full computer graphic face replacement. The result is quite extraordinary, considering none of it was a clip from any existing Hepburn movie. In other words, they gave Audrey Hepburn a brand new script. It was not unlike when Orville Redenbacher was brought back from the dead for a popcorn commercial in 2007. Only the computer imagery used with Hepburn was light years ahead.

While the galaxy chocolate commercial was criticized by many, it was approved by Hepburn's two sons. But both had different reasons for granting the permission. For her son Sean, it was the nostalgic memories he had of shopping for candy with his mother, who, he says, was a big fan of Mars bars. For her other son, Luca, it was his mother's personal history.

Audrey's teenage years were spent in Nazi-occupied Holland during the Second World War. He recounts that the first real piece of food given to her by the liberating army was chocolate. To her, chocolate was the taste of freedom. The motivations of family when granting the marketing rights to deceased celebrities

is always revealing. It's a delicate and difficult subject, because even though dead celebrities are highly marketable, even though they are still in demand, and even if they may have a long history of appearing in commercials, one debatable aspect remains. The Lebs can't give their approval. Would Audrey Hepburn have said yes to a chocolate commercial?

Would James Cagney have said yes to Diet Coke? Would Humphrey Bogart have said yes to furniture? Premiering now at Thomasville. Style. Glamour. Romance. Unique home furnishings inspired by the life and times of Hollywood legend, Humphrey Bogart.

Sensational pieces. Fabulous rooms. Perfectly cast for today's home. Thomasville presents Bogart Lux. While dead celebrities can't give their approval, they also can't cause trouble. When Cybill Shepherd endorsed L'Oreal, then later admitted she didn't dye her hair, it was a PR problem for the advertiser. When Tiger Woods underperforms,

so do the Nike shoes he endorses. But Deleves are absolutely dependable. When advertisers consider using a dead celebrity in their marketing, one of the first things they consult is the dead Q-score. A Q-score is a way to evaluate a celebrity's ongoing marketability and value. A brand's typical customers are surveyed and asked two questions. One, how familiar they are with the celebrity, and two, how much they like them. From those two answers, a final Q score is blended and tallied. The living celebrity with the highest Q score of all time, by the way, is Bill Cosby.

And in the case of a deceased celebrity, a dead Q score is computed. Audrey Hepburn, for example, had a very high dead cue score and ranked behind only Lucille Ball and Katharine Hepburn. Another deleb with a high cue score recently made a reappearance for a familiar advertiser. You're a whole new generation, you're dancing through the day You're grabbing for the magic on the run. You're a whole new generation. You're loving what you do.

I put a Pepsi in the motion. And that choice is up to you. Hey, you're the Pepsi generation. That was 1984. Jackson died in 2009. It is said that it was after the filming of the infamous Pepsi commercial, where his hair caught on fire, that he became addicted to painkillers,

and that addiction would, in part, contribute to his death many years later. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Jackson's ad that featured his song Bad, Pepsi inked a partnership with Jackson's estate to not only produce one billion commemorative Pepsi cans featuring the singer, but to also create a 15 second TV commercial with footage

of Jackson dancing, directed by Canadian Marco Brambilla. It's interesting to note that when Michael Jackson died, he was over $500 million in debt. But, according to Forbes, with record sales and marketing license income, Jackson's post-mortem earnings have now wiped the slate clean. And we'll be right back. In case nobody's told you, weight loss goes beyond the old just eat less and move more narrative,

and that's where Felix comes in. Felix is redefining weight loss for Canadians with a smarter, more personalized approach to help you crush your health goals this year. Losing weight is about more than diet and exercise. It can also be about our genetics, hormones, metabolism. Felix connects you with online licensed healthcare practitioners who understand that everybody is different and can pair your healthy lifestyle with the right support to reach your goals. Start your visit today at felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X.ca. If you're enjoying this episode, why not dip into our archives available wherever you download your pods. Go to terryoreilly.ca

for a master episode list. When UK agency Saatchi & Saatchi created an ad for Doc Martin's boots in 2007. It showed late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain sitting on a cloud in heaven wearing the boots. Even though he was known to wear the boots when he was alive,

Cobain's wife, Courtney Love, was furious. The CEO of Doc Martens pulled the ads, apologized to Love, and fired his ad agency. There may have been a reason why Courtney Love just got mad but didn't sue. There is no protection for dead celebrities in Britain. Their rights die with them. The law is a very interesting aspect of marketing dead celebrities. In Canada, a dead celebrity's rights are protected for 14 years after death. In the U.S., it varies from state to state.

New York, for example, offers no protection to dead celebrities. California, on the other hand, offers the most. And it all started with one legal case in particular. In the mid-60s, the widow and son of the horror star Bella Lugosi took Universal Studios to court. The Lugosi estate wanted to prevent Universal from pocketing all the merchandise profits based on Lugosi's wanted to prevent Universal from pocketing all the merchandise profits based on Lugosi's 1930s Dracula films. After an 11-year lawsuit,

the Lugosis failed to win the case, but it inspired other estates to pick up the fight. Eventually, California introduced the Celebrities' Rights Act in 1985, creating publicity protection for deceased celebrities, which lasted for 70 years after their death. Those rights could also be bequeathed to their heirs. But it had a caveat.

Those rights were only available to celebrities who died after 1985. It made sense that California would have the most comprehensive dead celebrity rights in the country, having the most celebrities per square inch. Which led to a very interesting case with one of its most famous stars. Several well-known photographers had snapped very famous photographs of Marilyn Monroe over the years.

Think of the famous shot of her standing over the subway grate in the billowing white dress. The Monroe estate at that time was owned 75% by Monroe's acting teacher, Lee Strasberg, and 25% by her psychoanalyst. In 1996, the estate hired a management company to control licensing for Monroe's rights and image, including all photographs. In a series of lawsuits, the families of the photographers challenged the estate's right to control Monroe's image.

They were tired of paying licensing fees for the use of their own property. Plus, because she had died in 1962, it predated the California Celebrity Rights Act. That's when Hollywood raced to fast-track a new bill. To protect Monroe and other celebrities, it allowed any star who had died since January 1938 to transfer their publicity rights to their heirs.

The legislation was quickly signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. But that's when it got interesting. It turns out that when Marilyn Monroe died, her estate fought for years to prove she was a New York resident in order to avoid paying California's state income tax on residuals she earned from her many movies.

They argued her New York apartment was her primary home, and her L.A. house was just used when she was filming. As a matter of fact, Monroe's will was probated in New York. But you can't have it both ways. Because New York doesn't

recognize post-mortem celebrity rights, the photographers won the case. But maybe the one story that sums up the controversial use of dead celebrities was triggered by a campaign that aired during the Super Bowl in 1997. A series of three 15-second ads were launched that featured Fred Astaire dancing with a Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner. Footage was taken from two Fred Astaire movies, and the vacuum cleaner was inserted as his dancing partner.

The amazing Dirt Devil broom vac sweeps and picks up dirt in one easy motion. You'll never have to stoop to using a dustpan again. Nothing escapes the power of a Dirt Devil. In the footage from the movie Royal Wedding, Astaire is really dancing with a hat rack, but through clever computer graphic techniques, the rack was replaced with the dirt devil. Fred Astaire's widow, Robin, granted the permission for the campaign. It was the first time she had ever let an advertiser use her husband's image. She felt strongly the commercials were

quote, artistically suitable and that Fred had often danced with props in his movies, from mops to brooms to, well, hat racks. Mrs. Astaire also felt no one understood his wishes more clearly when it came to his image

than she did. That wasn't Fred Astaire's first blush with advertisers either. His 1930s radio show was sponsored by the Packard Motor Company. The Packard Hour! Starring the screen's most versatile personality... Fred Astaire! Fred also did commercials in his later years, like this one for Western Airlines, which he starred in with his old dancing pal, Gene Kelly.

Hey, if you could move those famous legs a little, a fellow might be able to sit down. Well, if it isn't Mr. Kelly. Watch your step, sonny boy. These are loose shoes. Sonny boy? I've got to say, you're looking pretty turned out, kid. Not bad for over on the road. You know, Fred, you never stop traveling in style.

Oh, come see what it's like to travel in style on the Western Airlines. It's the only way to fly. Fred Astaire's son, Fred Jr., supported Robin in her decision to sign the deal with Dirt Devil. However, Fred's daughter, Ava, felt differently. She stated publicly she was saddened that, after her father's wonderful career, he was, quote, sold to the devil, dirt devil. But there was another reason why Robin Astaire licensed her late husband's image to the vacuum cleaner company.

She had been fighting to protect his image for years and took many companies to court for selling unauthorized merchandise. At one point, there was unauthorized Fred Astaire jewelry, cologne, tuxedos, and even condoms. When Astaire died at 88, he didn't leave behind a large estate, and defending her husband's legacy was expensive. Robin had already spent over $1 million on legal fees. In the ultimate irony, she needed the commercial revenues in order to keep

protecting Fred's image. In case nobody's told you, weight loss goes beyond the old just eat less and move more narrative and that's where felix comes in felix is redefining weight loss for canadians with a smarter more personalized approach to help you crush your health goals this year losing weight is about more than diet and exercise it can also be about our genetics hormones metabolism felix connects you with online licensed healthcare practitioners who understand that everybody is different and can pair your healthy lifestyle with the right support to reach your goals. Start your visit today at Felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X.ca.

Celebrity endorsements have always been a staple of modern marketing. We live in an attention economy wrapped inside celebrity culture, and there's no better way to get instant attention for a brand than to employ a star, dead or alive. Yet, the use of dead celebrities is fraught with issues. Is it morally right? Does it harm the celebrity's legacy? Does it enhance a brand's image?

Does it sell product? Then there's the issue of what the public thinks when they see a late celebrity selling chocolate or vacuum cleaners. Does it creep them out? But what if the family of the celebrity is okay with it? One thing is certain. It is a fast-growing industry. The licensing of dead celebrity is okay with it. One thing is certain, it is a fast-growing industry.

The licensing of dead celebrities is headed to $3 billion a year in North America alone. The sudden surge might just be fueled by technology. With incredible advancements, it's opening doors that were unimaginable to advertisers in the past. No longer is it a matter of harvesting old movie and TV clips. Today, as the Tupac hologram and Audrey Hepburn chocolate commercial demonstrate, dead celebrities can now be given brand new scripts. There was also a delicious irony in our story today. One of the earliest legal cases that tried to protect the rights of dead

celebrities was based on Bela Lugosi, the actor best known for portraying Dracula, a character famous for rising from its coffin. But not even death can keep a good celebrity down these days. It's enough to give Arnold Schwarzenegger's

famous line, I'll be back, a whole new meaning when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. Hello? Hello? Terry? Yeah, yeah, I just wanted to ring you up and say how much I enjoyed the show today. Yeah, marketing celebrities who have gone on to the great green room in the sky. Yeah, well, that's the most dadgum idea I've ever heard. Yeah, what do they think of next?

Anyway, I better go. This is a long, long distance call. Under the Influence was produced at Pirate Toronto. Sound engineer, Keith Oman. Theme music by Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre. Series Coordinator, Debbie O'Reilly. Research, Lama Balagi. By the way, I know you've been dreaming of wearing an Under the Influence t-shirt.

Or maybe I was dreaming that. But anyway, we have them for sale on our shop page. And if you listen to the show while sipping a tea or a coffee, have we got the mug for you. Go to terryoreilly.ca slash shop. See you next week. In case nobody's told you, weight loss goes beyond the old just eat less and move more narrative, and that's where Felix comes in. Felix is redefining weight loss for Canadians with a smarter, more personalized approach to help you crush your health goals this year. Losing weight is about more than diet and exercise. It can also be about our genetics, hormones, metabolism. Felix connects you with online licensed healthcare practitioners who

understand that everybody is different and can pair your healthy lifestyle with the right support to reach your