Ozzy: for my next trick I will say Shaaaaaarrrrrroooon
In spite of our bitching over here at Celebrity Sellout, we do secretly understand why the celebrities do it. We understand that Ozzy Osbourne gets that he’s no longer the bat biting prince of darkness, record sales are dwindling and Mrs O isn’t going to agree to fly Ryanair to Poland for her next facelift. He needs the cash.
What is harder to understand is the so-called creatives sitting around coming up with their next ad campaign and saying: “Yeah, wouldn’t it be hilarious if we had Ozzy Osbourne! And he did swearing! And was confused! And went ‘Shaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrroooon!’ at the end.”
“Dude, we can’t make him say ‘Shaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrroooon!’ at the end.
That is, like, totally a cliché.”
Wearily, then, we draw your attention to a new Samsung ad.
Ozzy Osbourne is, for no obvious reason, being taken on a tour of the Korean company’s R&D department (I mean why would you do that?). He is handed a Samsung handset. He swears. He is befuddled as he watches a video of a chimpanzee playing some very advanced electric guitar. A chimpanzee in the office gives him the sign of the horns (you know the one, the heavy metal rock salute). Ozzy is no longer befuddled (why not? This is totally mystifying) and walks off. Samsung tells us we, too, can be multimedia stars. Sorry, superstars. End of ad. I still want an iPhone.
The ad is wrong for a number of reasons. Firstly, it asks us to believe that Ozzy Osbourne has an interest in mobile phone research and development technology. Then it asks us to believe that chimpanzees are an integral part of the research and development technology. And finally, it asks us to believe that Ozzy Osbourne wouldn’t tell a person who uttered the phrase “very cool shortcut widgets” at him to “shutthefuckup”.
This is one of a series of ads set in Samsung’s R&D department, created by Leo Burnett USA. We’re sure that Samsung isn’t wasting money on ads or celebrity endorsements that don’t work, but nonetheless please, whoever is putting Ozzy Osbourne in all of the ads all of the time, stop it, STOP IT NOW. You have been warned.
Comments
Ozzy mate what you are you doing? Do you even know what it is you’re selling - other than yourself?
If I were married to Sharon Osbourne I’d rather go on tour of a mobile phone R&D department housing chimps who do the sign of the devil.
[...] days ago on this very blog were we lamenting the ubiquitousness of Ozzy Osbourne in ads and the unimaginative scripts that go [...]