After a 14-year relationship, Super Bowl Sunday will mark William Shatner's last official appearance as Priceline's spokesperson before the company's execs send his character to a fiery death.
Click here to see the 13 worst endorsement fails>>
While Shatner was dropped for being too good at his job -- too many people recognized him as "The Negotiator", and Priceline is switching from a bidding to a fixed-price model -- many other celebrities have lost their spokesperson positions for much more controversial and ridiculous reasons.
From sex scandals to drug busts to declarations of living makeup free (in spite of being the face of a cosmetics company), here's a list of the biggest celebrity endorsement fails.
O.J. Simpson, Hertz, 1992
Before O.J. Simpson became famous for allegedly murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend, Ronald Goldman, the former football star was the face of Hertz rental cars.
During the 1970s, Hertz paid Simpson a reported $550,000 a year for his spots.
When uncontested allegations of domestic abuse were reported in 1992, Hertz dumped Simpson. Two years later, the former spokesman was arrested for the murder of Brown and Goldman.
Sharon Stone, Christian Dior, 2008
Christian Dior dropped all Chinese advertisements featuring Sharon Stone after the actress made insensitive remarks regarding a devastating earthquake that claimed the lives of over 68,000 people.
"They're not being nice to the Dalai Lama, who is a friend of mine," Stone said. "And then all of this earthquake and all this happened and I thought, is that karma? When you're not nice, that bad things happen to you?"
Don't you love karma?
Madonna, Pepsi, 1989
At the peak of the cola wars in 1989, PepsiCo decided to fight the fire of Coca-Cola's celebrity laden ad blitz with fire and gave Madonna a one-year contract to star in a series of Pepsi commercials and a concert tour.
Paying the actress over $5 million to use her new song -- "Like a Prayer" -- in the spot, Pepsi premiered the commercial to almost 250 million people during a broadcast of "The Cosby Show."
While the ad itself was PG, Madonna's music video for the song in which she witnesses a rape and gyrates around a burning cross incited an explosion of controversy. (Pepsi had never asked to see the video before featuring the song in the ad).
Catholic bishop from Texas, Rene Gracido asked for a boycott not only of Pepsi but of its holdings as well, including Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut. Less than a month later, Pepsi pulled the spot.
Ludacris, Pepsi, 2002
More than a decade after the Madonna incident, Pepsi was enmeshed in celebrity spokesperson controversy yet again in 2002.
Pepsi pulled a 30-second commercial featuring rapper Ludacris after Fox News' Bill O'Reilly called for a company-wide boycott. O'Reilly characterized Ludacris' lyrics as "immoral" and a bad influence on youth.
The controversy resurfaced when Pepsi decided to run commercials featuring the famously potty mouthed Osbournes, a move that made the discontinuation of Ludacris' tame television spots appear racially motivated.
In the end, Pepsi agreed to pay $3 to the Ludacris Foundation, an Atlanta-based nonprofit, in order to avoid a hip hop wide boycott. Pepsi offered to re-shoot some of Ludacris' ads, but the rapper declined.
Chris Brown, Got Milk, Doublemint, 2009
Chewing gum maker Wrigley and the Milk Processor Education Program, which is responsible for the "Got Milk?" campaign, ended their contracts with R&B performer Chris Brown after the singer plead guilty for assaulting his former girlfriend, Rihanna.
“The Milk Mustache campaign is taking the allegations against Chris Brown very seriously,” the Washington, D.C.-based trade group said in a statement. “We are very proud and protective of the image of the Milk Mustache campaign and the responsible message it sends to teens.”
Helena Bonham Carter, 1990s
Yardley cosmetics ended its relationship with actress Helena Bonham Carter shortly after the British actress announced that she never wore makeup and, thus, had no idea why the brand had chosen her.
Kate Moss, H&M, Chanel, And Burberry, 2005
Kate Moss was axed from various fashion lines after the Daily Mirror printed photos of the British supermodel snorting cocaine in 2005.
It was reported that the then 31 year old model had even done lines during the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund in Barcelona in 2002.
Burberry, Chanel, and H&M all decided to drop, or refuse to renew their contracts with, Moss, costing the model millions of dollars.
But don't cry over the misfortune of "Cocaine Kate" -- Moss was still somehow able to double her income over the next five years.
Kobe Bryant, Nutella, McDonald's, 2004
Family friendly brands Nutella and McDonald's did not renew their contracts with Kobe Bryant after the Lakers star was accused of rape in 2004.
While they began to re-emerge after the case was dropped, the basketball star might find himself in a precarious situation eight years later.
International Business Times speculates that Bryant's impending divorce could also impact his endorsements.
Kirstie Alley, Jenny Craig, 2008
Apart from her acting career, former "Fat Actress" star Kirstie Alley has been most notorious for her fluctuating weight.
Alley ended her three-year stint as a Jenny Craig spokesperson in 2008 with the claims that she had kept her 75-pound weight loss steady for over a year and was ready to give other spokeswomen, Valerie Bertinelli and Queen Latifah, a shot.
Then the National Enquirer published a magazine cover that claimed that the star was "fired for being TOO FAT!" Alley was pissed, said it was a lie, and threatened to sue the tabloid.
True or false, Alley appeared on "Oprah" two months later to apologize for regaining all the weight. Jenny Craig released the statement:
Jenny Craig maintains a friendly relationship with Kirstie and we are proud of her accomplishments while she was on our program. Kirstie successfully lost 75 lbs and maintained that weight loss throughout our three year relationship, which came to an end in December 2007. We remain supportive of Kirstie, wish her nothing but the best and we would welcome her back at any time as a returning client.
Charles Barkley, Weight Watchers, 2012
While NBA legend Charles Barkley was never fired for his gaffe, it was still pretty embarrassing.
Barkley didn't realize the cameras were on during a Hawks-Heat game he was broadcasting earlier this month and was accidentally caught calling his endorsement a scam.
"I thought this was the greatest scam going -- getting paid for watching sports," Barkley said. "This Weight Watchers thing is a bigger scam."
Even though Barkley could have meant that it was a scam to get paid so much to lose weight (and not that the weight loss program itself was a scam), it was still a bad move. Still Weight Watchers took the flub lightly, releasing the statement, "We love Charles for the same reason everyone loves Charles, he's unfiltered...We agree that being a spokesman for Weight Watchers is a pretty great gig."
Alec Baldwin, Wegmans Food Markets, 2011
Rochester-based grocery store Wegmans Food Markets temporarily fired Alec Baldwin as one of their spokespeople.
Baldwin and his mother, a loyal customer, had been featured in a Wegmans commercial that the supermarket decided to pull after Baldwin belligerently refused to turn his cell phone off during a flight's takeoff earlier this winter. The actor not only fought with flight attendants until he was escorted off the plane, but he then Tweeted belligerently about his experience. Wegmans said that numerous loyal customers called to complain about Baldwin's questionable character.
But the ban was short-lived. Wegmans decided to re-air the commercial after the grocery store was berated by hundreds of emails, tweets, and angry calls.
Michael Phelps, multiple brands, 2009
Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps came under fire after a picture surfaced in which the swimmer was smoking pot at a party at the University of Southern Carolina.
Two deals with AT&T and Rosetta Stone ended on December 31 and neither companies decided to renew his contract. "We do not condone his activities and are disappointed in his recent judgment," a statement issued by Rosetta Stone read.
Kellogg Co. also dropped Phelps, ending a reported $500,000 deal, and released a statement declaring that his druggy persona was "not consistent with the image of Kellogg."
Other brands didn't care about Phelps' bong. Subway went so far as to have Phelps star in an ad titled "Be Yourself."
William Shatner, Priceline, 2012
Poor William Shatner. He got the axe for being too good at his job.
After 14 years as a Priceline spokesperson -- best known for his role as "The Negotiator" -- Shatner's character is literally getting pushed off a cliff.
Why are Priceline execs sending Shatner to his fiery demise? It turns out that Priceline is replacing the bid-based travel booking site to a fixed price model, so they had to do something big and drastic to make viewers notice the change... a change that they could never understand if the Negotiator were still alive.
According to E-Poll, when survey participants were asked to name the first thing that came to mind when they heard Priceline, 25 percent of participants said travel and 24 percent said Shatner or some variant (like Captain Kirk).
Now check out the 10 biggest Super Bowl 2012 advertising controversies.
... Something to argue about between plays>>
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