The history of celebrity self-promotion sets an unlucky precedent for the Oscar hopeful
Tinseltown's in a tizz about Melissa Leo's decision to take out a series of ads for herself in the Hollywood trade press ahead of the Oscars. Upset by her lack of exposure, the 50-year-old favourite for best supporting actress has said she paid for the ads ? glamorous colour photographs of herself in evening wear, topped by the word "Consider . . ." ? to counter ageism and "show a different side of herself".
It looks likely to backfire, of course, as self-promotion often does. Not just because the Academy has disliked stars who campaign for themselves ever since 1960, when Oscar-nominated actor Chill Wills claimed in an ill-advised ad that the cast of The Alamo were praying harder for him to win than those involved in the real Battle of the Alamo had prayed for their lives. Even Hollywood recognised this as poor taste, and the film's director, John Wayne, took out an ad saying so.
More generally, though, there's always a risk that the self-financed ad will be seen for what it is, even if it pretends to be otherwise. American media mogul Steve Stoute, for example, recently took out a $40,000 full-page ad in the New York Times slamming the Grammy awards as elitist for snubbing big-name rap and hip-hop performers (and even Justin Bieber) in favour of more obscure artists; observers quickly noted that Stoute makes his living out of big-name rap and hip-hop stars.
Some artists just can't help it. Kevin Rowland of 80s pseudo-soul popsters Dexys Midnight Runners habitually took out ads in the music press to explain the band's exalted mission, rather than speak to journalists, who tended to be rude about it. Rob Schneider, star of such comic masterpieces as Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo and The Hot Chick, has thrice paid for full-page ads: once to get back at a critic, once to announce he would never again work with Mel Gibson, "actor-director-producer and antisemite", and then in an Australian paper to deny an alleged copyright infringement. Some might say Schneider is almost as good at self-promotion as he is at acting in turkeys.
US sport fans, too, understand the real message behind the full-page ads departing stars take out in their local newspapers. "Akron is my home, and the central focus of my life," NBA star LeBron James, deserting the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat, promised his outraged hometown supporters last year. "Thank you for your love and support. You mean everything to me." Yeah right, said his former fans.
Grovelling, patently insincere corporate apology ads, from Arthur Andersen after Enron to BP after Deepwater, haven't helped our appreciation of self-financed advertising. It's an old trick, though, and sometimes works: Dionne Warwick's career owed much to album ads the singer paid for herself. And as long ago as 1866, a young Mark Twain advertised his first lecture. It sold out, and Twain was launched. But the ad was brilliant, a witty and knowing parody of 19th-century promotional gambits. So it doesn't really count.
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