The most exciting news in celebrity endorsements -- besides Lindsay Lohan getting paid to tweet shoutouts on her way to the clink -- is coming from the spirits world.
This March, entertainment mogul Sean Combs, AKA Diddy, went around promoting Ciroc vodka. He declared all other brands "pee-pee" and ignited a "vodka war."
Spike Lee hyped Absolut and got flak for exploiting the black community.
Now, here comes Willis hawking a brand called Sobieski, which just hit the American market in 2007. The actor owns a small stake in the company.
Imperial Brands, based in Palm Beach Gardens, distributes the vodka, and its CEO Chester Brandes told the New York Times in June
that the company chose Willis as a spokesperson because he was
"authentic, likable, and not superficial -- plus he likes our vodka."
According
to Imperial Brands, Sobieski is the best-selling premium vodka in
Poland. The company has made no secret of its sales goal: "to be the
fastest vodka brand to reach sales of 1 million cases in the U.S. in one
calendar year," says Brandes.
Willis is doing a handful of
in-person promotions (none scheduled in Florida at this time) and stars
in an online marketing campaign. One aspect of the campaign is a mildly amusing interactive
feature, where you type in a question and Bruce shoots back an answer --
kinda like a Magic 8-ball. Check it here.
Now, if he could just piss somebody off...
