When did it become okay for celebrities to do commercials

[williamtheday]

Eleanor Roosevelt was talked into doing a margarine commercial .

[HollowSage]

While you can find specific examples of it happening going way back I don’t think the floodgates really opened up until the trend of tv stars becoming movie stars became commonplace.

There used to be an artificially created separation between movie stars who you pay to go see on the big screen and tv stars who you watch in your home for free. Part of that separation was not wanting movie stars to show up on tv screens because it would weaken their brand.

However once more and more actors made the transition from small screen to big screen this separation became untenable. People were already used to seeing these new movie stars on the small screen. So the stigma naturally faded as well.

[useridgoeshere]

As an aside, it's interesting seeing Joan Crawford for RC Cola when we know later that she was all about Pepsi, marrying the president of Pepsi and serving on the board after her husband died.

I think that there has been a shift from when brands were about rational product superiority to now, an age where there isn't much difference between them functionally and they're mainly about image.

[Largo161]

As has been illustrated in this thread celebs have always done "advertising." If you want to draw any dividing lines, I'd say when TV exploded in the fifties movie stars felt it was a no-no to do TV commercials--even though they'd done print ads. And then, as someone else has noted, when TV stars started becoming movie stars, the stigma of TV commercials slowly faded.

[j9ac9k]

And let's go back farther.

Going back further in time doesn't help your argument because the time period being discussed happened afterwards. Probably the 70s - 80s I think when A-List actors wanted to be seen as "artists" and some were making enough Big Money to not have to take endorsement deals. Of course there will be exceptions, so citing a few examples won't change that fact. The aforementioned Japanese ads are a good example of those celebrities unwilling to be seen "cashing in" doing the same in American ads at the time.

[Kirby101]

So for a very small period of time some actors didn't want to do ads, until they threw enough money at them. Is that what it is? And any examples of big stars in the 80s doing ads is just an exception. So the answer to the OP is all the way up to sometime in the 70s until sometime near the end of the 80s.

[Kirby101]

While you can find specific examples of it happening going way back I don’t think the floodgates really opened up until the trend of tv stars becoming movie stars became commonplace.

There used to be an artificially created separation between movie stars who you pay to go see on the big screen and tv stars who you watch in your home for free. Part of that separation was not wanting movie stars to show up on tv screens because it would weaken their brand.

However once more and more actors made the transition from small screen to big screen this separation became untenable. People were already used to seeing these new movie stars on the small screen. So the stigma naturally faded as well.

You'd be surprised how many movie stars showed up in episodes of TV shows in the 50s

[AnthonyO'Brien]

Grew up with Paul Hogan (crocodile Dundee) and his cigarette ads

[babyblob]

I remember when Bob Dole was shelling Boner pills.

[DrNewGod]

While literally true, the OP was asking about a specific time and attitude that did exist where it was seen as "beneath" A-Listers to hawk a product in an ad. (and not just make an appearance in some artsy way, I mean being a salesperson pushing a product) And that attitude has become a lot more lax to the point where it doesn't really exist anymore. (I can't really offer an answer or timeline about how that attitude shifted though)

Can anyone think of a scenario with a big name pushing a product that would surprise anyone at this point? Similarly, can anyone remember a time they saw an A-Lister in an ad and being surprised?

When was that?

Good examples. It seems to have become less common, during a period between the late 1950s and the late 1980s. The 1950s, incidentally, were when the old studio contract system was gasping its last, leading me to wonder how often studio contract actors were required to appear in ads.

That span (1950s-1980s) were also when there was a something of a separation between film and TV actors. It wasn't a strict caste system, but very few (McQueen, Eastwood, Garner, etc.) were able to migrate from television to cinema. There was also something of a stigma attached to having to "descend" to TV work (theater seemed immune to that, largely I'd guess b/c theater was seen as the home of the "real" actors). It seemed to be the cinema character actors and the TV actors that wound up in ads more than the cinema headliners.

[DrNewGod]

You'd be surprised how many movie stars showed up in episodes of TV shows in the 50s

They did. The studios were getting rid of their contract system at the time and - older actors, especially - were scrambling for work.

Tangent: One of the reasons I loved Angela Lansbury was that she pushed the casting directors to hire older film actors for guest and recurring gigs on Murder, She Wrote. Certainly, it tickled the nostalgia centers of the audience, but recent credits also let actors keep their qualifications for SAG's insurance benefits.

[ChrisIII]

To be fair, a lot of the Japanese commercials are rather....eccentric.

Although this is Arnold so I'm not sure he was embarrassed.

[Riv86672]

To be fair, a lot of the Japanese commercials are rather....eccentric.

Although this is Arnold so I'm not sure he was embarrassed.

^^^Nic Cage’s pachinko ad is even stranger!

[Jokerz79]

You'd be surprised how many movie stars showed up in episodes of TV shows in the 50s

I remember an episode of Wagon Train with Bette Davis and Lucy did a whole season in Hollywood with big stars cameoing.

Back in the 50's they had a saying in Hollywood Television is what happens between the commercials.

[ChrisIII]

MAD MEN did a whole storyline around a celebrity insult comedian doing an UTZ commercial.