Charlie Sheen's Comeback in Commercials?

Fiat 500 a new and upcoming car company, trying to enter into the American car scene, is doing a surprisingly good job at capturing their audience's attention. Their latest commercial which makes light of Charlie Sheen's house arrest is both relevant to pop culture, and entertaining to watch. The question however, is what risk was Fiat taking associating themselves with Charlie Sheen?

Charlie Sheen who has become even more popular since being kicked off the hit show Two & a Half Men, has very publicly displayed his life deteriorating from substance abuse and all around bizarre behavior. For some reason though, advertisers have taken advantage of his ill-won notoriety and have been very successful in taking a damaged brand that is Charlie Sheen and making it work for their companies. The reason for their success may stem from the fact that Charlie Sheen has no qualms making fun of himself or his circumstances on these commercials, making it even more entertaining for viewers to watch.

For example, in this particular commercial for Fiat 500 Charlie Sheen himself is making fun of being under house arrest. But, he does it in a way that actually makes fun of the people who put him under house arrest to begin with. Fiat focuses on two things, the cars size, functionality, speed, and all the other important aspect of the car itself, along with the fact that driving this car will make you seem cool. The tag line at the end was "Not all Bad Boys are created Equal". In essence Fiat 500 is a sexy and well run car, that you should take notice of.

Overall though, the advertisers who have used Charlie Sheen in their commercials have been well received and in the end increased awareness of their brand. This does not mean that all downtrodden celebs are created equal and should be paired with a company's brand. All of these companies took a risk associating their brands with Charlie Sheen, however their gamble payed off and their advertising campaigns were well received.

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