You Probably Forgot About Ozzy Osbourne's Bizarre Margarine Commercial
When it comes to commercials, marketing teams and creative directors are having to get more and more creative to make a statement. Especially with the rise of streaming services, people are able to fast-forward or completely avoid promotional advertisements altogether, leaving companies to think out of the box to get their message across. This is where popular celebrities and influencers come into play, helping companies promote their products for people to integrate into their daily lives. According to Financial Express, celebrity endorsements rose 44% in 2021 alone, making it a huge market when it comes to advertising and an even bigger opportunity for celebrities to cash in.
Over the years, we've seen some amazing commercials, including McDonald's tapping Ye for its Super Bowl commercial and M&M's hiring Schitt's Creek actor Dan Levy. We've seen even more bizarre and questionable ones, like Ringo Starr's Pizza Hut advertisement and Serena Williams and Jake Gyllenhaal's JUST Egg debut. While we try to forget these weird partnerships, there are some that we look back on to have a good laugh for the day.
I can't believe it's Ozzy Osbourne!
Apparently, Black Sabbath doesn't use butter. According to The Takeout, Ozzy Osbourne was tapped to help promote and market the popular butter substitute I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!
The commercial – which aired throughout England in 2006 to help relaunch the product — shows the Prince of Darkness cooking in a kitchen with fellow Ozzy impersonator Jon Culshaw (via Ozzy). Culshaw heads to the refrigerator to get some butter but hesitates because he "can't tell the difference" between real butter and the ICBINB brand. Culshaw chooses the butter substitute which the two then use to mix into their recipe for "fairy cakes." Of course, the Prince of Darkness would never make those and declares them "rock cakes." But hey, we can't tell the difference.
While Osbourne's celebrity endorsement for the ICBINB brand is pretty bizarre, the creative directors did a decent job at portraying the brand's messaging and look-alike to butter with Osbourne and his impersonator.