As any smart politician will tell you, politics is all about promising everything, but at the same time, nothing specific, so those words won’t bite you in the butt later. Unsurprisingly, that statement also perfectly describes how advertising works.
It doesn’t happen often, but there were six cases when actual presidents appeared on the screens trying to sell us something.
1. Barack Obama
In 2015, Barack Obama didn’t star in some fast food or credit card commercial; instead, he promoted his healthcare system — Obamacare and the website Healthcare.gov. That’s not super exciting or fun, but at least the commercial did its job. Even today, the whole world still remembers the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of Obamacare.
2. Ronald Reagan
As most people know, before becoming the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan was an actor. Not a great one, but still. When Reagan was 40 years old, he still had a lot of his charisma left over, and he used it all to advertise for the Chesterfield Tobacco Company. Those were the days when cigarettes were “cool,” and Regan indeed looked very cool and convincing.
3. Mikhail Gorbachev
When you think about Gorbachev, you probably remember an old bald Russian dude from that one Pizza Hut commercial. Yes, indeed, that was him in 1997! What’s that? Have you never seen that ad? It must be because it was made for the Russian audience who have never seen a Pizza Hut restaurant. The company filmed the ad in Moscow with a budget of one million dollar, most of which went straight to Gorby’s pocket.
After becoming a star, Mikhail received countless invitations from different companies, and in 2000 he starred in a commercial for the national railways of Austria, but he wasn’t the president anymore. Thirteen years later, this old fossil became a Louis Vuitton star in Berlin, appearing side by side with Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, and Catherine Deneuve.
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