I don’t know about you, but the last celebrity I expected to see repping not one, but TWO meg-abrands during the Super Bowl was . And according to his out-of-character Brisk advertisement, he felt the same way.
Here’s the premise: Eminem gets asked to do commercials all the time. He demands to film the spots in his own house, record his own jingle (which gets beautifully bleeped out) and of course, he’s got to have a lot of hot chicks. But hey, he usually hates the product he’s supposed to be promoting so he “bounces.” In this ad, though, a claymation Em wants everyone watching the Super Bowl to know how much he just loves Brisk, and wants to rename it “Eminem Shut Up and Drink It,” but he can’t, and that’s why he doesn’t do commercials. Except that he just did. Whoaa.
Brisk? Really? The weirdly-carbonated soft drink alternative that comes in a can and tastes like a brick of preservatives? Eh, Brisk just doesn’t scream “Eminem would drink this.” Perhaps Slim Shady would have been more appropriately paired with 5-hour Energy or some new brand of vodka. If Brisk executives think Eminem is going to change their brand from boring to be badass, they shouldn’t get their hopes up.
Shady’s second Super Bowl commercial was for Chrysler. The two-minute ad (the longest in Super Bowl history!) starts with a calm, defiant voice explaining some history of Detroit, mentioning the hardships of its people and what they’re capable of. Automobiles and American pride go hand in hand, right?
Around the 45-second mark, the beat from “Lose Yourself” starts kicking in. It isn’t until after a minute of a city driving tour that we actually see Eminem’s face behind the wheel, rolling up to the Fox Theatre to join a gospel choir. Em looks into the camera and says, seriously, “This is the motor city, and this is what we do.” Chills. Fade to black. “Imported from Detroit,” is the tagline that appears on the screen.
Marshall Mathers was raised in Warren, Mich. — a suburb of Detroit — making him a good candidate for the company’s spokesperson. So does this ad scream “sell-out?” or just “Detroit rocks! And so does Eminem!” Surely he didn’t do it for the money. Surely Em doesn’t drive a Chrysler. But then again, does Beyonce, Gwen Stefani or Jennifer Lopez use L’Oreal products? Probably not.
There are definitely some weird singer/celebrity endorsements out there, which begs the question, does “selling out” even exist anymore? Zooey Deschanel sells cotton. Ozzy Osbourne once helped sell “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.” Justin Timberlake recorded an entire three-and-a-half minute single (and matching music video) entitled “I’m Lovin’ it” for a multi-million McDonald’s deal. For crying out loud, one of the last faces of Chrysler was CELINE DION.
These celebs can’t possibly need the money. So why do they do it? The answer is as simple as a new pair of white cotton underwear: to have the public associate their faces with some of the biggest brands out there. But when it comes down to it, will you really think of Eminem next time you pop open a can of Brisk? Probably not. Unless, of course, his claymation face is printed on the side…which would be ‘Shady,’ itself.
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Allison Berger is a Philadelphia-based writer and a Pop music columnist for Reverb. Check out more of her writing
