Star’s Sales Pitch Doesn’t Mean the Product Is Gold
Listening to celebrities discuss subjects outside their expertise can be like watching stupid pet tricks: You know you should be embarrassed for paying such close attention, but it’s hard to turn away.
That, of course, is why so many companies rely on celebrities to pitch hotel rooms, rental cars, cruise berths and time-share condos.
How much credence do these endorsements merit? And if one of the travel products doesn’t deliver, how much blame falls legally on the celebrity endorser?
Ask Robin Leach, best known for his host work on television’s “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” In 1997, Leach lent his name to National Travel Services and Plaza Resorts Inc. (which does business as Ramada Plaza Resorts). Both are Fort Lauderdale direct-mail travel promotion companies that draw tourists to Florida time-share presentations by sending out certificates for bargain holidays.
“Robin Leach says pack your bags!” said the mailers, which promised a luxury Florida vacation with a cruise and Las Vegas-style gambling.
In late 1998 and early 1999, those companies ran into trouble. In a coordinated effort, attorneys general from more than a dozen states, including California, filed lawsuits alleging deceptive sales practices. The trips Leach was endorsing often cost consumers as much as $1,000 a person for a week in south Florida and a ferry trip to the Bahamas, authorities said. The Vegas-style gambling turned out to be bingo on board. In most cases, the centerpiece of the visit was a time-share sales presentation. (The complaints target the selling of the vacation packages, not the specific time-share sales pitches.)
The California case against the companies is pending, with trial set for Aug. 17 in Marin County Superior Court. But many states reached settlement agreements with the companies (which are still in business) in February. Richard Epstein, the Fort Lauderdale attorney who represented National Travel Services in negotiations with the states, said the agreements gave payments of $35,000 each to 18 states, along with full or partial refund offers to thousands of consumers who bought the trips. Epstein said $2.5 million has been set aside for covering those costs.
The promotion companies weren’t the only targets in these lawsuits. More than a dozen state attorneys general named Leach in the suits, asserting that he should be held directly accountable for his role as pitchman. Through New York attorney John J. Hannaway, Leach argued that he had almost no contact with the companies and said he had sought to end his connection with them even before the lawsuits.
Citing this legal wrangling and other endorsement cases outside the travel industry, several state authorities said it’s folly for consumers to trust a celebrity more than they would any other stranger.
California was one of the states that targeted Leach, but a judge dismissed the case, saying that the state didn’t have jurisdiction. (Leach apparently never entered California in connection with the venture.) But 12 other states reached a settlement with Leach last month. Leach admitted no wrongdoing but pledged that in the future he would comply with Federal Trade Commission guidelines, which require endorsers to rely on their honest beliefs, findings or experiences in making endorsements. Under the settlements, Leach was obliged to cover $4,000 each in legal costs for four states, attorney Epstein said. (Epstein said National Travel Services paid those costs for Leach.)
High-end travel companies generally don’t use big-name spokespersons. But there are still plenty of household names pitching travel products, from Jerry Seinfeld (the American Express card) to Kathie Lee Gifford, who has been promoting Carnival cruises since 1984. Gifford “typically sails at least a couple of times a year,” said Jennifer de la Cruz, a Carnival spokeswoman.
Carnival has used other celebrities. In the mid-’90s, about the time that competitor Royal Caribbean was using Lauren Bacall in TV spots, Carnival ran TV ads featuring Robert Wagner, Richard Simmons, Willard Scott, Betty White, George Foreman, Regis Philbin and Frank Gifford. But the line’s relationship with Kathie Lee Gifford has outlasted all others.
Gavin MacLeod, who played Capt. Merrill Stubing on TV’s “Love Boat” in the 1970s, still appears regularly in support of Princess Cruises.
“We’re inextricably linked,” says Julie Benson, a Princess spokeswoman. “He is so beloved by the consumer. We brought him to the L.A. Times Travel Show. Around the block, there were lines to meet him and get his autograph.” She said MacLeod spends a week a year or more on Princess ships.
“The general rule for endorsers, whether the person is a celebrity or an individual consumer, is that the endorsement has to reflect the honest opinion and findings of the person who’s making that endorsement,” said Andrea Foster, the FTC’s Atlanta-based Southeast regional director.
Robert Nichols, the deputy district attorney who has worked the case and others like it for the Marin County district attorney, goes a step further. Regardless of what federal laws may require, the attachment of big names to a product “does not mean that they have thoroughly checked out the product . . . or even know what they’re selling,” he said.
The celebrity list above leaves out one no-longer-viable spokesperson: O.J. Simpson, who represented Hertz rental cars for nearly 20 years until 1994, when he was accused of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her acquaintance Ronald Goldman. Hertz let its affiliation with Simpson lapse that year.
Simpson was acquitted but found civilly liable for the deaths. A Hertz spokeswoman said the company hasn’t hired any celebrity spokespersons since Simpson.
Christopher Reynolds welcomes comments and suggestions, but cannot respond individually to letters and calls. Write Travel Insider, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012, or send e-mail to chris.reynolds@latimes.com.
