Advertising

It seems like up until recently in the United States it was taboo for big celebrities to do TV commercials. It was so bad that in the 1980's top US stars had to look overseas to make extra money hawking products on TV.

Not only did Arnold Schwarzenegger film commercials in Japan, but so did other big movie stars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Meg Ryan.

The reason given by most of the stars for going to Japan to do advertising was that they were afraid doing commercials domestically would cheapen their respectability in America and make them seems like sell-outs. Most big stars even had "secrecy clauses" that would prevent the Japanese companies from leaking their sponsorship to the US. Leo and Meg have gone so far as to file cease and desist letters to websites that hosted videos of their foreign ads.

Here in Japan there is no stigmata at all for big stars to do TV ads. As a matter of fact, I can't get through a single night of TV without seeing multiple commercials featuring the members of the boy band group, Arashi trying to sell me everything from cars, snacks and beer to headache and allergy medicine.

I don't know about you, but I would have had no problem with Arnold selling products on TV back in the 80's. I would have loved it, in fact. I mean, look at that face. I have no idea what he is selling, but I'll take two!