Brad Pitts Japanese cell phone commercial

Back in the day, big celebrities could film advertisements that would be aired only in other countries and no one in the U.S. would know about it. It was a great way to make some extra cash quickly, and they wouldn’t be seen as less serious actors for promoting a non-luxury brand or appearing in a dumb ad. But thanks to the internet, that kind of secrecy is long gone. It’s easy to find overseas print ads and commercials with a simple Google search. Brad Pitt might have forgotten this when he recently filmed a spot for Softbank Mobile to be aired in Japan.

While big time movie stars rarely appear in TV ads in the US, anyone who’s seen Lost In Translation knows stars can score a big pay day by doing commercials abroad.

That’s just what Brad Pitt is doing here, playing a bumbling tourist in this spot for a Japanese mobile phone company.

He pushes a broken down car, is nearly run-over by a group of bicyclists and uses his camera phone to take a picture of… well just watch the video and see.

This adorable spot is apparently a take off of the 1950s French film, Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot and was directed by Wes Anderson.

Brad has done several commercials for the Japanese company, and the company spokesperson Naoki Nakayama tells Us magazine: “It is a pleasure to have him as part of the Softbank company, and we look forward to premiering the new commercial, along with our new season of phones, this winter.”

[From X17]

Lots of websites are praising the commercial as adorable. I guess it’s reasonably cute but somehow I find it a little too cheesy. Obviously I’m not the audience it’s intended for, so it doesn’t really matter. Brad is obviously in good company though. Cracked has a funny article titled, “The 5 Most Ridiculous Celebrity Cameos in Japanese Ads.” Michael J. Fox is shown pushing some kind of tea/soft drink hybrid while wielding giant pruning shears and turning a large round shrub into a bear. He then is chased by an obese housekeeper. So everything considered, I guess Brad’s add is pretty dignified after all.

Header photo of Brad and Angelina in London on November 18th. Images thanks to WENN.

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