The Florida State Citrus Commission & Burt Reynolds He has appeared in off-Broadway productions, and in November 2007 was the subject of a New York Magazine story about his employment in a Mexican restaurant in the city. The computer giant dropped Curtis and his ad campaign shortly after the arrest.įor his part, Curtis has bounced back, though. Although the bag of pot was tiny enough that Curtis escaped any big legal entanglements, Dell was less than amused. Remember those fantastically annoying "Dude, You're Getting a Dell!" ads from a few years ago? What you may not remember is that the hyper-enthusiastic "Dell Dude" (actor Ben Curtis) got busted for attempting to buy a bag of marijuana in New York City. O'Reilly/Hope all is well, kiss the plaintiff and the wifey," a pointed dig at a sexual harassment lawsuit pending against the talking head. Pepsi quickly dumped Ludacris, and the rapper made quite a bit of hay out of his feud with O'Reilly on several subsequent records, including the jab "Hi Mr. He called for a boycott of Pepsi products until the man O'Reilly decried as a "thug rapper" was shown to the pitchman door. O'Reilly was incensed by Ludacris' lyrics that glorified drinking, drugs, violence, and disrespect towards women. Suddenly, the normally reserved conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly launched an offensive against both the soda maker and the rapper. In 2002, rap star Ludacris was minding his own business and endorsing Pepsi. Think Madonna getting physical with a saint is offensive? Just wait ten more seconds by then she'll have developed stigmata! The video caused such a stir that it was banned in some countries, and Pepsi quickly had to drop its Madonna spots and cancel future appearances by the singer. The music video for "Like a Prayer" was almost laughable in its willingness to go over the top to appall each scene of Madonna's religious subplot seems to raise the bar for nonsensical shock value a little bit higher.
The soda company signed Madonna to a $5 million deal to make commercials, including one that would include the song "Like a Prayer." That's when the trouble started.
Pepsi apparently neglected to think about the possibility that something could go horribly awry when they took the singer on as their new voice, though. Back in 1989, though, she was not just the embodiment of sexuality she was also willing to do almost anything to be shocking. Take for instance these guys and gals, each of whom was given their walking papers following a scandal, public embarrassment, or bout of outspokenness.Īlthough she's back in the news now for allegedly bewitching Yankees star Alex Rodriguez, it's sometimes hard to remember that Madonna was a sex symbol, not just a cautionary tale about taking your Anglophilia several steps too far. A bad one, on the other hand, can quickly ruin the brand images that companies spend years and millions carefully honing. A good pitchman can boost any product's name recognition with some high-quality shilling.