Spokesperson fiasco #19: Whoopi Goldberg and Slim-Fast

Posted Jul 17th 2008 5:00PM by Bruce Watson
Filed under: Marketing and Advertising, Unilever ADR (UL)

This post is part of a series on celebrity spokespeople who ended up doing serious harm to the brands they were hired to promote, or vice versa. See how we rank the 20 top spokesperson fiascos.

I have to wonder what Slim-Fast (Unilever ADR, NYSE:UL) was thinking when they hired Whoopi Goldberg. Many of their earlier spokespersons, including Ann Jillian and Kathy Lee Gifford, exuded a sort of "if you don't love me, I'll die," desperation. On the other hand, Whoopi's self-confidence and pride are as much a part of her persona as her granny glasses and trademark braided hair. Although she has never shied away from the spotlight, a great deal of Whoopi's strength lies in her low-key energy and undeniable power. In retrospect, this might have made her a less than ideal choice to shill for the brand, which thrives on insecurity.

Regardless, in late 2003, Slim-Fast talked Whoopi into hawking their shakes; presumably, there was a very large check involved. Things progressed relatively well until July 2004, when she decided to appear at a gala fundraiser for Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry. Carrying a bottle of wine onstage, Goldberg pretended to read from the label: "When Bush comes to shove, don't whine. Vote Kerry." She proceeded to launch into a series of bush-themed double entendres.

Almost immediately, Bush supporters began calling and writing Slim-Fast, threatening to boycott the company's products if it continued to employ Goldberg. Slim-Fast quickly caved, stating that it was disappointed in Whoopi and would no longer air her commercials. She responded that, "While I can appreciate what the Slim-Fast people need to do in order to protect their business, I must also do what I need to do as an artist, as a writer, and as an American -- not to mention as a comic [...] I only wish that the Republican re-election committee would spend as much time working on the economy as they seem to be spending trying to harm my pocketbook."

Goldberg proceeded to reprise the routine at other venues; she later found a place on The View. In the meantime, Slim-Fast went on to hire Rachel Hunter, whose conventional good looks and palpable insecurity are far more fitting for their marketing demographic. Recently, however, the company has demonstrated an amazing inability to learn from the mistakes of the past. In January 2008, they approached rapper Eminem with an endorsement offer; one can't help but wonder if his misogynistic, violent lyrics might not alienate Slim Fast's target market!

Read the entire series

Do you boycott products because of their spokesperson's actions?
Frequently	127 (22.4%)
Occasionally	99 (17.5%)
Seldom	95 (16.8%)
Never	245 (43.3%)

Tags: Slim-Fast, spokesperson fiascos, SpokespersonFiascos, unilever, Whoopi Goldberg, WhoopiGoldberg

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

7-17-2008 @ 7:55PM

wanda jones said...

All of us make comments that are "racy" one time or another...they just happened to say what they said when someone had a boring day and wanted to make a big deal out of nothing...when someone threatens to blow up the world...THEN TAKE NOTICE.......

7-18-2008 @ 11:19AM

Meg Bond said...

If I want to drink Slim-Fast, I will. I don't really CARE who is in the ad. On the other hand, at one time I would have loved to meet Whoopi, but after many of her comments on the show, that she took over from Barbara, I don't believe she would want to meet me; because I am a white woman from the south. I am not a bigot, but she seems to be. Why does it seem that everything these days is a black or white issue? I thought we were trying to teach our children that "The color of ones skin does not reflect the person within". Growing up, in Daytona Beach, Florida, I have met people from almost every place on earth, and in my opinion, every race has at least a few people who range from embarrassing, to down right evil. I just do not understand why I should pay for the stupidity of a bunch of rednecks, that happen to be my forefathers.

7-18-2008 @ 4:11PM

stacy0525 said...

From my experience, I noticed things become a black and white issue b/c alot of black expect thigs to be given to them by the government. They turn everything into racial discrimination. Most of the white people don't look to sue when their is dicrimination against them racially. I know a few people that qualified for a certain job and were truned down because they were white and Managment was black so they did not consider hiring those people. They never even considered suing the company for discrimination even though they had proof. But if that would have happened to a black person they would have immediatly sued. Eight years ago we needed help to get Medicaid b/c I was pregnant, it took me 7 months to get that. When i was at one of my appointments there was a lady there that had no problem getting on Medicaid as soon as she was pregnant and she proceeded to tell me that she was getting brand new furniture, brand name clothes for her and the baby, free aparmnet and her utilities were paid allbyt he government. they gave her everything while my husband and I struggeled to just get Medicaid. Then a few months later we applied for WIC (dughter had to be on a certain milk $20/can) it took us 2 months to get that and the only reason we did finally get it is b/c we called the main supervisor. Here we were struggling to make it by while the same girl from the hospital was at the WIC office and had her hair done, nails done, nice car, and brand name clothes. On top of that at the apt complex I'm living in there is a familythat lives here that get double foodstamps. The husbands stays home with the kids, the wife is a nurse making desent money but he gets foodstamps in his name and she gets some in hers. Obviously their case worker never bothered getting their info. I applied to get help in February and becasue of the case worker not feeling like she needed to do anything on our case closed our case both cases (had to apply twice because of her)we just now got help. Had to call everyother day and complain for months before we could get anything done. I am not prejiduce and I'm not trying to offend any one, sorry if i did, but this is how it all becomes a black/white issue.

7-19-2008 @ 11:42AM

Devon said...

If Barbara Walters would have told Hoopie to shut up and listen..instead of Elizabeth Hasselbeck..she would have been listed as a racist..there definately are two different worlds as Goldberg tried to explain..I'm talking about the View on Fri..