The Old Celebrity Hook That (Almost) Never Fails: Mr T & Snickers Show How It's Done!

It's not a foolproof tactic by any means but the concept of bringing out to Australia an overseas 'celebrity' still pays handsome dividends in terms of publicity for companies willing to take the chance.

Further to a previous post on the subject, hat-tip to Mars (and its PR agency) for a job well done on the recent touring of US actor Mr T on behalf of its Snickers brand.

Mr T - best known for his work on TV's A-Team and the movie Rocky III - generated heaps of press and broadcast coverage for himself and the brand.

The man was everywhere, and the media gladly covered him.

Here are some samples of coverage generated.

While it might seem like a simple celebrity 'PR stunt' (horrible term but one that gets bandied around way too much), if you're going down this path there's a checklist of things you need to remember, including:

Make sure there's a relevant connection between the celebrity in question and the brand they're representing (in this case, Mr T appears in TV commercials for Snickers) - there are exceptions to this rule if the star is big enough, but in reality, you still need some legit link.

Make sure the celebrity is visually branded in some way (or the event at which they attend has sufficient branding for photographs i.e. a logo wall) - I sometimes think over-branding can have an adverse effect as it annoys the media, but then, the media isn't always forthcoming in giving the brand a mention in the editorial; if I recall correctly, early shots of Mr T during his Oz jaunt featured minimal if any Snickers branding, but that changed after a day or so and he ended up covered in the product - literally! Snickers got away with it, but 'over-branding' can backfire.

Make sure the celebrity is a decent, likeable person...a professional who is prepared to work hard and be generous with their time - this is a lot harder to get right but it's important - if you've got a self-centred and unprofessional freak on your hands, the whole project could go pear-shaped very quickly. As an aside, Mr T came across well (humble, genuine etc) and this no doubt aided in him getting as much exposure as he did.