• by April 11, 2001

(Reuters) - At a packed Planet Hollywood in New York's Times Square recently, the crowds were thronging to get a glimpse of the big star. But it was no recent Oscar winner that people were lining up to see.

It was Mr. T, star of the 1980s hit TV show "The A-Team," who was pressing the flesh with fans to help promote a new commercial for Lipton's Sizzle & Stir in which he plays a father in a rather odd family.

While major advertisers have used celebrities to market products for many years, more and more companies are seeking to grab consumers' attention with stars from times past in offbeat settings.

Several have appeared in some recent commercials, including William Shatner, known for his TV and film roles as Captain Kirk in "Star Trek."

Child star Gary Coleman of the comedy series "Diff'rent Strokes" appears in two new commercials by Orkin Pest Control, a unit of Rollins Inc.

Ad executives say that these kind of celebrities make commercials more memorable and, essentially, more believable for consumers.

"I am not the biggest fan of celebrity advertising. Just to use someone as a spokesperson for a product doesn't really work any more," said Thomas Hayo, group creative director at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, which created the new $25 million campaign for Lipton. The agency made two ads featuring a cast of "strong personalities from the past" that stood out, Hayo said.

ODD-BALL FAMILIES SEEM MORE REAL

Both of the ads feature rather odd-ball families. In one, game-show host Chuck Woolery is the father, talk-show host Sally Jessy Raphael is the mother and the children are played by singer Little Richard and actor Pat Morita.

In Mr. T's family, Loni Anderson is the mother while George Hamilton and Mary Lou Retton are the children. The commercials aim to show families as they really are -- a group of very different people -- and how cooking up a Sizzle & Stir dinner can bring them together, officials say.

"If you use celebrities with a concept, they give you an advantage," Hayo said. "The first thing you have to do to get noticed is to stand out from the clutter."

For Mr. T, the reason for using him in advertising is simple. "People know I am a real person," he told Reuters in an interview. "I am just the guy down the street who made it good."

And it's not just the Lipton ad that is trying to stand out from the crowd with believable characters. Many other advertisers feel that they have to do something "edgy" with a different kind of celebrity to get across their message.

"There is a push to use people who seem real," said Jean Manasian, executive vice president of Interpublic Group of Cos. unit Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, which has created a new campaign for telecommunications service provider Broadwing Communications, a unit of Broadwing Inc.

BROADWING WANTS TO CONVEY REBEL MESSAGE

The Broadwing ad features Hollywood actor Dennis Hopper, star of '60s cult movie "Easy Rider," delivering monologues that rant against Internet dinosaurs and extol the virtues of Broadwing. The ads come with the tagline "The world's first beautiful network" and are targeted at technology experts.

"It was a very rebel, disruptive kind of personality that the company wanted to display," Manasian said of the decision to use Hopper.

"He was just the kind of person who could deliver the message of the world's first beautiful network and be believed," said Pat Glavin, Broadwing's vice president of corporate marketing. "This guy does not do a lot of ads. We knew that it would create a buzz."

Brands such as Bristol-Myers Squibb's hair products maker Clairol also are looking for different ways to market their goods. The company has launched a new spot featuring keep-fit star Richard Simmons in a commercial for its Herbal Essences shampoos in a funky-style commercial, picturing a woman fantasizing about three men in a hotel lobby.

Linda Kaplan Thaler, chief executive of ad agency Kaplan Thaler Group, which created the ad, said Simmons was the perfect fit because the agency's research showed that women really trusted him. "He is this non-threatening personality that women think about as their friend," she said.

Orkin, with its new Gary Coleman ads, is also aiming to break from the traditional spokesperson mold. In one of the new spots he will portray a private investigator "lookin' for clues and bustin' some moves."

CONCEPT DOES NOT ALWAYS WORK

Whether the concept actually works is another matter. The financially struggling "name-your-own-price" Internet company Priceline.com, a big-time television advertiser, used Shatner to star in its commercials -- first in radio and then in television ads.

Priceline recently scrapped the Shatner TV ads and is now showing animated commercials, inviting consumers to think about the kinds of things they could do with the money they saved by buying cheap tickets on Priceline.

Spokesman Brian Ek said the Shatner ads had worked in the sense that the company had built strong brand awareness through the commercials, but that consumers did not really understand how Priceline.com actually worked.

"What we found is that consumers were familiar with the brand, but not many of them know how Priceline actually worked and how they could use it," he said.

Priceline had elected to use Shatner in the first place because of his broad appeal, his strong radio presence and because he is associated with futuristic concepts.

"You need someone whose voice can be recognized and who has multigenerational appeal," Ek said.

Shatner, who was paid partly in stock options for his Priceline work, was reportedly unhappy with the fall in the company's share price. Priceline's shares were trading at $2-3/16 recently, way off a 52-week high of $93-3/8.

Ek did not rule out the appearance of Shatner in future Priceline advertising. Shatner is under contract with the company until October.

"We still believe that he is very effective on radio. Obviously we are not ruling anything out."