Cricketing great Shane Warne, who died in Thailand aged 52, made an art form of being a bloke, leveraging that skill in a long line of commercials.
The punters didn’t mind that his performance was on the wooden side, his look boofy. He was real.
They lapped up his ads, from the easy sells such as beer, to fixing thinning hair to spruiking pasta sauce and pushing his own line of fragrance.
But his commercials didn't always work. Taking $200,000 from Nicorettes to stop smoking in 1999, he was soon busted sneaking a cigarette.
But Warne turned that around, blaming the lapse on a night out with his mates while on tour, and vowing to keep trying to quit.
“Love him or hate him, Shane Warne was part of Australian culture,” says ad watcher Georgia Phillips, the COO at Luma Research.
“He represented the true version of an Aussie giving life a solid crack. He wasn’t perfect. But that’s what we loved about it and that’s why he was also able to make a lot of money from endorsements and advertising.
“He didn’t take himself too seriously and was happy to laugh at himself. That was probably out of necessity…he got himself into a bit of trouble and his acting was pretty bad.”
“He lost his hair and then won a contract with Advanced Hair. He was a heavy smoker, then won a contract to promote nicotine patches. He got caught out in a sexting scandal and was then able to turn that into a contact with a phone messaging company. He was the master at spin – not just spinning the cricket ball, but also the marketing and advertising spin.
“Celebrities like Shane Warne are a great opportunity for brands to generate a bit of borrowed equity. Leveraging on their fame, trust and associations. He was your average Aussie who made good and so he was the perfect brand spokesperson as he was highly relatable, likeable and very well known.
“So what of his ads – which ones will we remember him for and which ones would we rather forget?
“My personal favourites are the Nike ad from 1999 and the Kayo ad from 2019. He didn’t have an acting role in either.”
He was a Nike brand ambassador. The ad was one of the first few that was solely emotional back at the end of the 90s. he personified the Nike spirit and brand line, Just Do It.
“His strength, persistence and determination were heroed and linked well to the Nike brand,” says Georgia Phillips.
Twenty years later Kayo made fun of Warne’s omnipresence to help build awareness of its new sports streaming channel.
The ad shows the frustration of Warne’s children, Brooke and Jackson, at him being a bit of an Eddie Everywhere. They were “Warne” out.
Georgia Phillips: “ Shane doesn’t have to say anything in this ad, but it's another great example of the star being able to laugh at himself and the scale of his fame. It's very likeable and was a great way for Kayo to be associated with a big sporting personality like Warnie and build credibility around their brand.”
“We’ll miss this Aussie icon. What a legend,” says Phillips.
Paul Swann, Executive Creative Tinker at Thinkerbell: “I did really enjoy this campaign he did for Macca's.”
“Great casting of Warnie which played to his sense of humour and approachability,” says Swann.
“He was a massive star who was prepared to have a laugh at himself.”
Adrian Mills, Partner - Creative, Brand & Advertising at Deloitte Digital, recalls the big Warne commercial for Cricket Australia.
“Big Warne was pioneering in a time when platform ideas weren't necessarily the done deal," says Mills.
“It was done for cricket Australia on a relatively tight budget. One big bang that created its own energy, captured the fun thing that Britons both loved and fearede.
“The thing about Warne is that he could advertise advanced hair and then represent Nike. That was quite rare at that time.
“And the thing that made him unhateable was that on one hand, he was heroic, and on the other he was fallible.”
His appeal was summed up when England supporters, the Barmy Army, chanted: “We only wish you were English.”
“To the English he was an idealised version of an Australian, just like Neighbours,” says MIlls.
“But he was more than that, he was his own brand and he was distinctive. He was a devilishly good looking renegade who played by his own rules.”
Jack Elliott and Lochie Newham, associate creative directors, Wunderman Thompson: "In many ways, Warnie was able to resonate so well with so many people not because of his extraordinariness, but his ordinariness.
"He was a balding, Hawaiian-pizza-eating, cigarette-smoking bloke who just happened to be one of the best sportsmen in the world. That’s why he could sell anything from pasta sauce to VB and you’d believe it.
"The Advanced Hair ads aren’t great (and have arguably never been) but the fact that they’re starring the best bowler on Earth has made them unforgettable."
Advance Hair Studio
VB
Leggo's pasta sause
Just Jeans
Foxtel
Sportbet
Club Cricket
CHEMIST WAREHOUSE, SW23 By Shane Warne
McDonald's
Pepsi
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