Using a Celebrity Voice

There is a trend in advertising to use the voice of a celebrity...or an impersonation of one to plug a product. The main reason that a company would use an impersonation of a celeb, is that they’re too cheap to hire the actual voice. I've been doing impersonations ever since hell was a grass fire and what really bothers me is that the ad agencies, the folks that write the commercials for companies, don’t understand how to use an impersonation to get the biggest bang for the advertiser.
In a commercial you need to say something that grabs the attention and imagination of your audience. If you use one voice, unless really dynamic, you audience will get bored an tuned out. This is called listener fatigue and we all have it. So you say use two voices...yes much better. When one of those voices is a celeb impersonation...you have a spot that rocks. I was asked to audition for a commercial recently and the ad agency asked for full 30 sec read in the voice of Don Lafontaine. If you don’t know who he is, he’s the voice you hear on a billion movie trailers. For one thing you would never hear Mr. LaFontaine do a full 30 sec read, maybe 3 or 4 lines tops. What this agency didn’t understand, is that when you want your commercial to stand out...use the celeb impersonation as a supporting role. Keep the impersonation SHORT. This will ensure that the listeners attention will spark up and they will hear what’s being said. You might wonder how I found out how to use impersonations? Many years ago it was explained to me from one of the best in the business, Rich Little.
If you’re thinking of using a celeb impersonation in a commercial, you should be aware that some folks are being sued by celebrities now for using their vocal likeness.
Thanks for the read and comments are always welcome.
Bryan Cox--Voice Over Guy


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