An agency start-up is to capitalise on the current vogue for using
dead celebrities, such as John Lennon and Steve McQueen, in
advertising.
Dead Famous, a subsidiary of the Celebrity Group, will help clients or
advertising agencies to obtain copyright approval and family permission
to use images of dead stars in advertising. It claims it can negotiate
licences for the use of celluloid greats such as Marilyn Monroe and
Humphrey Bogart.
The agency will also offer advice on ensuring that use of dead
celebrities in advertising does not backfire. Celebrity Group chief
executive, Ron Mowlam, said: ’It is an area which needs to be handled
with great sensitivity. If an ad agency gets it wrong, the PR backlash
could be disastrous.’
Mowlam argues that companies need to be responsible when using images of
the deceased because of public concern over the issue. In research by
Audience Selection, based on a survey of 1000 UK adults, 90% of
consumers think that UK law should be changed so that advertisers must
obtain permission from the surviving family or estate of a deceased
celebrity before their image can be used. At present there is no law
which requires advertisers to ask first before they use a dead celebrity
in an ad, although most choose to.
John Lennon currently features in Bartle Bogle Hegarty’s One 2 One ad
with Chris Evans, while manipulation of old footage allowed Young &
Rubicam to use Steve McQueen’s San Francisco car chase scenes in Bullitt
to advertise the Ford Puma.
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