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12 Best Foreign Celebrity Ads
Bonjour, Dalí!
When he wasn’t painting melting clocks, Salvador Dalí—really, Salvador Dalí—was getting paid to declare himself crazy for Lanvin chocolate, as he does in this 1968 French ad.
Mr. Pitt Goes to Japan. Via France.
How’s this for a culture clash—a Japanese commercial, starring an American actor, based on a French film. This 2008 commercial for Softbank Mobile was directed by Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums) and is modeled after the French film Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot, but all you really need to know is that it stars Brad Pitt decked in head-to-toe yellow.
Also, “Jolie” Means Pretty in French
Trust Angelina Jolie to demolish language barriers. She doesn’t say much in this 2008 commercial for Japanese cosmetics company Shiseido, but does she even need to?
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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You're surprised Jolie and Pitt would stoop to do a mere commercial? The couple that sold their baby pictures to the highest bidder? Twice?
slobone, Jolie and Pitt then gave the money they made on the pictures to charity. I applaud them for that.
Oh, Daily Beast. How you amuse me. But you missed a few!
Nicolas Cage runs afoul of aliens while singing along to Beethoven's Fifth in his pick-up: http://tinyurl.com/anunmx
And this Japanese commercial, which features no celebs but is truly awesome: http://tinyurl.com/cxccoq
Forgot one myself...a vastly superior depiction of Orson Welles boozed up and flubbing his lines: http://tinyurl.com/2fl5xp
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there are many better Japanese commercials starring American celebrities...The Megan Ryan one being one of my personal favorites.
http://thepopcorntrick.blogspot.com/2008/10/top-us-celebrities-as-seen- in-japanese.html
There was a great one in the mid-90s of Ringo Starr promoting apples because ringo means apple in Japanese.
You have missed one of the finest foreign celeb commercials of all time: Charles Bronson for Mandom cologne (http://tinyurl.com/mandom).
He is truly the manliest of manly men...
Brad Pitt is just flat funny.
Thank you.
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