Groucho refused to say in this ad that he smoked Old Golds because it wasn’t true. I believe he later wrote in his autobiography “Groucho & Me” that he regretted doing the ad at all. By the way, in case you are wondering, there is no brand of cigarettes that is helpful in treating a cough “honey-like smoothness” notwithstanding.
Everyone is selling something but at what cost?
In 1999 Julia Child and Jacques Pepin did a cooking program together for PBS. The show was filmed in Julia’s kitchen in her home in Cambridge, Mass. It’s the same kitchen that was lifted whole and placed in the Smithsonian Museum of American History. You can see it there today. The program was great fun due to the fantastic chemistry between Julia and Jacques. There are whole episodes of the show on YouTube and I encourage you to check it out. I’ve watched all the episodes many times including the one on “Pork,” which contains not a single dish that I can cook.
One thing you will not find in any of the 22 episodes of the series is the name of a single brand or product. Even when they were using a popular brand of mayonnaise or olive oil, they took pains to make sure that the label was facing away from the camera. They never mentioned the brand of their food processor or cookware or even a favorite knife.
Yes, there was a mention of the show’s sponsor during the opening credits. Something along the lines of, “Today’s show was made possible by a grant from the Acme Product Company,” but that was about it. Julia never endorsed a single product for money during her entire career.
My, how things have changed.
I am a big podcast listener. I listen as I am walking every day. With a few exceptions, all of these podcasts feature the hosts endorsing this product or that. The same products seem to show up over and over. A certain dietary supplement, a hydration powder to add to your water bottle, a mattress guaranteed to improve your sleep or at least to track it. In most cases, I do not begrudge the endorsements. If making a podcast is your whole work, you need to find a way to make a living and accepting ads and/or endorsing products is a way to generate revenue.
But if you are famous for say, acting, is it reasonable to trade on that fame to make a little more money? And if you are going to do endorsements, I do think it is a reasonable question to ask yourself, “What is the value of my reputation and how much of it am I willing to squander.” Because for each paid endorsement, even for a product you truly believe in, there is a price to be paid in reputation. It may be small or it may be large. What is that price and why should you care?
This is the question that occurred to me recently when I started seeing a series of ads for Wells Fargo Bank featuring the comedic actors Steve Martin and Martin Short. I don’t know anything about the financial circumstances of these two living icons of comedy. I’d assume they are doing ok but I must admit that I don’t know. Perhaps the only option at this point in their illustrious careers is performing in ads for what is arguably one of the most corrupt and criminal banks in recent history. (Don’t take my word for it. Here is what the U.S. Department of Justice said about Wells Fargo in February of 2020.
And more recently, Wells Fargo was still at it in 2023.
Even worse, the Short-Martin ads aren’t even mildly amusing.
In a world in which almost everyone will sell almost anything for a few bucks, those who will not stand out. One such a holdout is Sam Harris. Harris has a popular meditation app called “Waking Up” which is available by subscription and contains no advertising. He also has a Podcast called “Making Sense” which has no ads and is also available only through subscription. If you don’t have a subscription you can listen to the first 20-30 minutes of each episode free. After much debate (I hate subscriptions), I subscribed to the show for $150 per year and I am glad I did. He offers very thoughtful interviews and commentary— ad free but not free.
Another example is “For Heaven’s Sake” a podcast from the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, which features analysis on the changing situation in Israel and is also ad free.
Other podcasts have ads but allow you to forgo them in exchange for a paid subscription. But that is not the same as Sam Harris who has the courage to say, I am not going to take ads; if you want my content you have to pay for it.
But folks like Sam Harris feel like exceptions to the rule. Even government officials and political figures are selling meme coins, crypto currencies, NFTs, and beach towels with their likenesses. Often they are giving the impression that what they are selling is their favor. In other words, it often looks like a bribe.
Most of us are not famous enough to be in a position where we can trade our endorsement (or likeness) for cash but it still may be a useful thought exercise to ask yourself: Just how much would it cost to buy you?
Your reputation is what’s left when everything else is gone. What’s the price for yours?
The world’s a narrow bridge; fear nothing.