Picking the Right Ad Spokesman Takes Skill

By signing comedian Bill Cosby to a long-term advertising contract, E. F. Hutton has teamed up with one of the most popular performers in the nation.

While some advertising executives raved about the selection, others wondered whether Cosby is right for a stockbrokerage. His most recent commercial efforts have been on behalf of Jell-O pudding and Coca-Cola soft drinks.

The choice points out that matching celebrities with companies and their products can be tricky.

Advertisers often turn to celebrities when they want to draw instant attention to their products or make a personal connection with their customers. The glamour of a celebrity spokesman can also energize a company’s sales staff.

“If you can afford a star, have the patience to put up with a star and have the star that ideally fits your product and promise, hire your star,” advises McCollum-Spielman & Co., a Great Neck, N.Y., research firm.

“Then grit your teeth and pray that your star doesn’t have embarrassing skeletons in the closet and will outlive your campaign--literally and figuratively,” the firm said.

Stars may also attract more attention to themselves than the product. Advertising executives say this often happens when companies hire someone with no logical connection to their product.

Works for Some Products, Not Others

Another shortcoming with stars is that they can do superbly for one company but fail for another. Telling the difference in advance can be difficult.

Take the case of actor John Houseman, who has done very well for an investment firm but failed for a fast-food chain.

Looking very much the wealthy executive or tenured professor, Houseman has appeared for seven years in commercials for the investment firm of Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co.

“They make money the old-fashioned way,” he snaps. “They earn it.”

Smith Barney turned to Houseman after deciding that the appeal of the old-fashioned ethic of hard work would help it broaden its base of business.

The message was “amazingly natural” for Houseman to deliver, ad director Bob Connor said, because he had been appearing as a demanding law professor in a television series. Connor said the commercials have helped Smith Barney win the wider recognition that it sought.

Houseman was unable to transfer the credibility that he built in the Smith Barney role to his brief stint with McDonald’s Corp. in the early 1980s, according to professionals who measure consumer response to advertising.

Houseman conceded that the McDonald’s commercials didn’t work.

“They were not particularly amusing commercials,” he said in a recent telephone interview. “I think the kids resented having this old gentleman telling them what to eat.”

When Hutton’s ads begin appearing next month, Houseman and Cosby will find themselves competing for many of the same investment customers.

$15-Million Campaign

Hutton has been trying to move ahead after pleading guilty a year ago to fraud charges in a check-overdrafting case.

But the firm made no mention of that in announcing April 15 that Cosby, the star of his own television show, had agreed to become Hutton’s spokesman in a $15-million ad campaign. Hutton did not disclose how much it is paying Cosby.

The comedian will appear in about 10 television commercials, print ads and in at least 14 concerts that Hutton will sponsor.

“Bill Cosby is not only one of the most recognized persons in the country, he is also one of the most respected,” Hutton said in announcing the deal. “His reputation for credibility is extremely high among all Americans.”

But Ian Fawn-Meade, senior vice president-creative director for the Bloom Agency advertising firm in Dallas, said Cosby may have lost some credibility by touting the new Coca-Cola formula.

The old Coke formula was brought back after consumers demanded it, and its sales have shot far ahead of new Coke sales.

Nonetheless, Cosby comes to Hutton with the highest popularity scores in the 24 years that Marketing Evaluations has polled consumers about such things.

Levitt said Hutton clearly wants to improve its reputation by associating itself with him. “They want to sign on with a larger-than-life image of good, and that is Cosby these days,” he said.

Tom McElligott, creative director at the ad agency of Fallon McElligott Rice in Minneapolis, said the connection between Cosby and Hutton is not clear.

“Cosby is associated with fun foods. I’m not sure the public is going to make the connection between this guy and shrewd investing,” he said.