Five actors who reprised their most iconic roles in TV adverts
We humans are often simpler creatures than we’d like to admit. While we like to think of ourselves as classy, erudite consumers of high-class culture, sometimes we’re just as attached to nostalgia as anyone else. We’re also way more susceptible to advertising than we think we are. Put these two things together, though, and a savvy marketing company can concoct something which we find hard to resist, even if we want to. It acts as the perfect conduit for commercialism in Hollywood.
One of the best ways for advertisers to hijack the part of our lizard brain that says, “Hey, I know that thing!” is by hiring beloved actors to reprise their most famous characters in adverts. There have been many cases of this over the years, and it must be a reliable way for companies to move the needle because it simply keeps happening.
Are these actors grossly selling out their principals to make a quick buck off our love for them? Yes. Do they wrestle with the morality of such a thing? Maybe some of them do, and some don’t. But when grizzled action stars are selling car batteries and iconic TV psychiatrists are flogging fizzy drinks, it’s obvious that the phenomenon shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
Here are five actors who reprised their most iconic roles in TV adverts.
Actors who reprised iconic roles in TV adverts:
Bruce Willis
On October 17th, 2020, Rumer Willis posted a tweet that made fans of her chrome-domed action-hero father sit up and take notice. Alongside 15 seconds of cinematic footage showing her father, Bruce Willis, walking down a foggy, moodily lit street at Christmastime, she posted the hashtags “#DieHardisBack” and “#ad”.
The internet quickly went into sleuth mode. Was this a teaser for a secret sixth Die Hard movie? Would the world soon be treated to John McClane thwarting more terrorists’ evil plans with his fists, a host of guns, and some perfectly-timed wisecracks? Did everyone conveniently ignore the second hashtag, which almost certainly pointed to the teaser presaging some soulless commercial cash-in on Willis’ most beloved character? The answer, of course, was the latter.
Ultimately, John McClane did return – in an Advanced Auto Parts advert. While it was ultimately pretty lame to see Willis go this route, the ad did at least have some pretty high production values. It also featured Willis braining a guy with a Die Hard-branded car battery. That’s got to count for something.
Bryan Cranston
Bryan Cranston hasn’t just brought everyone’s favourite meth-cooking, pork pie-hat-wearing chemistry teacher, Walter White, back for an advert once—he’s done it three times. In 2015, we saw the intimidating Breaking Bad protagonist in an Esurance clip as a pharmacist who told a scared lady, “Say my name,” when she asked for her prescription.
Then, in 2023, Cranston roped his old friend Aaron Paul into reprising his role of Jesse Pinkman in a 2023 PopCorners advert shown during the Super Bowl. The clip recreated one of the show’s most iconic early episodes and even featured an appearance by Raymond Cruz’s insane drug dealer, Tuco Salamanca. Once again, as all three are high-level comic actors, it was pretty funny. It also hit the nostalgia buttons better than the previous ad, and nostalgia is frustratingly hard to resist sometimes.
Finally, in 2024, Cranston returned with an ad entitled “Breaking Bad Habits,” which featured White in his iconic Heisenberg getup warning people to keep litter out of his territory. It may have been one ad too far.
Harvey Keitel
Ah, now we’re talking. For our money, Harvey Keitel‘s revival of Pulp Fiction’s iconic fixer Winston Wolfe in a series of Direct Line adverts is the pinnacle of what can be achieved when a celebrity chooses to sell out to the almighty advertising dollar. For one thing, the clips are reliably funny, and Keitel’s delivery is always spot-on. They’ve managed to do the impossible, in that people’s reaction to seeing Wolfe hawking insurance is a knowing smile, as opposed to the fate which awaits most of these adverts: an eye roll.
Interestingly, Keitel and Direct Line’s match made in marketing heaven was almost stopped in its tracks before it began. During a meeting with advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, the idea was suggested, but the Chief Executive of Direct Line wasn’t sure about the idea. He had cold feet about attaching a gangster character to insurance, one of the least trusted industries in the world, and Marketing Director Paul Geddes had to assure him it was the right call before he signed off on it.
Geddes smiled, “This whole thing culminated in Tarantino, Harvey Keitel at the Cannes Film Festival debating the virtues of doing car insurance advertising in the UK. Lo and behold, common sense prevailed, and the rest is history.”
Kelsey Grammer
Did you know that Dr Pepper blends 23 different flavours in one sparkling cola-like beverage? If you didn’t know that, how would you feel about Kelsey Grammer’s verbose, acerbic Dr Frasier Crane explaining the drink’s virtues to you? If that tickles your fancy, you’re in luck because Grammer actually did this in a Dr Pepper commercial back in 2009 – and it was better than you’re imagining.
In truth, the writing in this piece of money-grubbing marketing nonsense is pretty darn sharp. In his inimitably smooth, dramatic, and yet also hilarious voice, Grammer intones, “Scientific tests show that when one drinks Dr Pepper slowly, one can truly relish the 23 flavours. Would that we could savour all our relationships, much as the conductor savours his chorale nocturna. Slowly.” That’s smart soda pop-based comedy writing, people.
Best of all, though, the clip ends with Frasier getting a call from Lilith, his ice queen ex-wife, played by Bebe Neuwirth. When she accuses him of never savouring her slowly, he deadpans, “Well, Lilith, I guess I finally found the right icy doctor.”
Judi Dench
We’ve now reached our first case of “This character is obviously meant to be so-and-so, but we haven’t actually purchased the rights, so enjoy our legally distinct imitation” territory. When Dame Judi Dench became a brand ambassador for MoneySuperMarket in 2022, the advert was clearly doing everything it could to make you think of her role as “M” in the James Bond movies.
In the clip, she presides over a team known as the “MoneySuperSeven,” who are dedicated to getting the good people of Britain better deals on mortgages, insurance, and loans during a cost-of-living crisis.
We have to admit, we’re not too fond of this one. For starters, paying a rich Hollywood star a bundle to make an advert preaching about saving money when people all across the country are struggling is pretty ghoulish. The fact that MoneySuperMarket didn’t – or couldn’t – even secure the rights to use the actual “M” character is an extra layer of awful, though.
