Gosh! Hugh Laurie is the new L’Oreal Men Brand Ambassador

“This morning the L’Oreal Ambassador, Mr Hugh Laurie,  handed Gillette a final note stating that, unless we hear from them by 11 o’clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their Gillette Series Senstive Skin Gel from the top shelf at the supermarket, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received.”

I am not sure what a brand ambassador does exactly, though I suppose it probably doesn’t involve declaring war on other brands.  It is just as well in the case of Hugh Laurie.

I have been a big fan of his for years, but nobody would describe him as possessing gravitas.  I still think he was born to play Bertie Wooster.   Like most Brits I am totally bemused by the success of House.  Okay, doing a pretty good American accent is entertaining for about 10 minutes but hasn’t yet got me to the end of the episode.

But I digress.

What exactly does a brand ambassador do?  I am sure that these things must have some logic to them.  With so much money at stake, L’Oreal must know what they are doing.  They can’t simply be using their marketing budget just to hobnob with stars and get to premiers and parties on expenses.

There must be some mechanism whereby the activities of the brand ambassador translates into more sales of well packaged but otherwise unexceptional shower gels and shaving mousses.   But I have never worked out the details.  Is Hugh Laurie worth it?  I certainly don’t begrudge him his fee.  If it means he has enough cash to come home and do another series of Fry and Laurie I’ll be even happier.

But I won’t be buying any more products because of it.

This is the official video of him in his new role.  I think we are supposed to appreciate it in a cool and ironic way.

[hana-code-insert name=’General Interest’ /]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OzmbJPMN8yA#at=27

And here is one of his greatest sketches

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BjDmEhbPLY