Ozzy Osbourne’s Margarine Commercial Proved the Power of the Personal Brand

The leisure trade misplaced an enormous with the demise of Ozzy Osbourne on July 22, however the promoting world is bidding its personal smaller, although no much less important, adieu.Positive, Osbourne wasn’t the multi-brand endorsement machine that, say, David Beckham is. Nor was he in advertising and marketing’s “let’s simply neglect about them” class like O.J. Simpson or Ye. And, admittedly, the long-lasting Black Sabbath frontman solely did a relative handful of advertisements, pairing his pale visage with manufacturers like World of Warcraft and Liquid Loss of life.Nonetheless, Osbourne deserves a spot within the annals of selling historical past, if just for one spot—important as a result of it marked not only a uncommon second of cultural coolness for a mainstream advertiser, but additionally for marking the inception of one thing extra consequential and enduring: the Ozzy private model.We communicate of the 30 seconds in February 2006 when Osbourne—the parentally feared and bad-assed heavy steel demigod—confirmed up in an advert for I Can’t Imagine It’s Not Butter.The spot was a cooking skit wherein Osbourne shared the highlight with Ozzy impersonator Jon Culshaw. “Go me the butter, man,” actual Ozzy advised ersatz Ozzy, who opened the fridge to discover a block of butter sitting alongside a bath of I Can’t Imagine It’s Not Butter, a lower-calorie unfold owned by Unilever on the time. (The model is now in non-public fairness fingers; Unilever didn’t reply by press time for a remark.) A befuddled Ozzy then turned to face the primary Ozzy and mentioned: “I can’t inform the distinction!”Particulars are scant as to why Osbourne—who stuffed stadiums for his concert events and loved a reported web value of $220 million—felt the necessity to endorse a diffusion for toast. However the bigger level right here is that this very home model was snug having Osbourne as its public face. In spite of everything, this was the man who known as himself the Prince of Darkness, sported pentagrams, threw uncooked meat at his followers, and as soon as bit the pinnacle off a bat.Why take an opportunity on a celeb like that? Nicely, perhaps as a result of the Ozzy of 2006 wasn’t the Ozzy folks thought they knew only a few years earlier than.Osbourne had lengthy maintained that his fanged smile and satanic trappings had been simply an act. “It’s all only a position that I play,” he advised The New York Instances in 1992. “I’m not the antichrist. I’m a household man.”  In 2002, MTV gave Osbourne an opportunity to show his level. The outcome was The Osbournes, a home-based actuality present whose singular moments included the getting old rocker attempting to work a TV distant and choosing up the household canine’s poop. An instantaneous hit, the present drew 8 million viewers at its peak and kicked open the door for everybody from Pawn Stars to the Kardashians.Whether or not or not all these viewers (and even Osbourne himself) had been totally conscious of the very fact, the present was a remaking machine that catalyzed Ozzy’s private model—distinct from his black-caped stage mania and, in his unselfconscious befuddlement, one which turned out to be self-effacing, humorous, and very likable.It’s one motive why, within the I Can’t Imagine It’s Not Butter spot, the 2 Ozzys might stand at a kitchen counter strewn with human skulls and everybody obtained the joke.In the present day, a era later, the notion of celebrities being manufacturers unto themselves is a given. However the emergence of the actual, and surprisingly atypical, Ozzy Osbourne was an early peek at how vital these manufacturers would find yourself being, and the way agreeable—and in the end bankable—they’re.