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{{trope}}
A celebrity may be willing to do certain things for [[Money, Dear Boy]], but they'll also have a set of standards for what they'll do. You may think it's reasonable that they have their principles, but you forgot that most successful celebrities sold their principles and sense of shame bundled with their soul and 92-year-old grandmother [[Deal Withwith the Devil|in a package deal]] [[At the Crossroads|made at a crossroads to a]] [[Man of Wealth and Taste|gentleman of considerable wealth and taste]].
 
Deep down, not all successful celebrities believe that there is [[No Such Thing Asas Bad Publicity]], instead they are able to recognize (or pay their agents to recognize) is that doing something embarrassing or "beneath" their standard for some short term bucks can become a [[Never Live It Down]] that [[Ruined FOREVER|harms their long term prospects and marketability]]. They will refuse crass or embarrassing uses of their time. The one exception: if it is done very far away where no one will see it. And by "no one", we mean "no one who speaks English", and by "very far away", we usually mean "Japan".
 
Some celebrities are also willing to do foreign commercials as a way of keeping themselves visible in that market, when they don't have a movie being released over there at the time. Doing talk shows and TV appearances in their home country is feasible since they don't have to travel very far. Doing talk shows in a hundred different nations every other month would be nearly impossible. With a commercial, they only have to shoot it once, and it will be aired fairly often.
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* [[Jean Reno]] did a commercial for a canned coffee drink in full Viking regalia, including [[Horny Vikings|a horned helmet]].
** Reno did it again, but this time playing ''[[Doraemon]]'' of all things to promote Toyota's "Fun To Drive Again" series of ads where it shows the Doraemon characters 20 years later. Reno appears in 2 of 3 ads so far in the series. [http://kotaku.com/5900234/jean-reno-makes-a-great-anime-cat/gallery/1 See the ads here.]
* Kiefer Sutherland of ''[[Twenty Four|24]]'' has starred in a series of Jack Bauer-themed commercials for Calorie Mate nutritional supplements, where he plays the part of the grizzled agent while maneuvering through schoolgirls on a crowded subway car or disarming bombs in downtown Tokyo. This also appears to be the sole reason why Carlos Bernard made an [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvzyeFhCfTg appearance] on a Japanese comedy show as Tony Almeida.
* American soccer player Landon Donovan made some ads [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6Dz0wD1jeQ for a sports-based lottery in Mexico].
* Madonna has a long history of pimping Japanese goods, including campaigns for Mitsubishi in the 80's (where she performed various songs in person), Elleseine makeup (where she rides an elephant), a 1995 campaign for Takara beer (where she fights poorly-CGI'd dragons before enjoying a glass) and, most bizarrely, a 2007 campaign for a high-rise Japanese condo development.
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== Film ==
* ''[[Lost in Translation (Filmfilm)|Lost in Translation]]'' uses this for Bob Harris's reason to be in Japan. He's there doing an ad for Suntory whiskey in a job that he in no way has any reason for being chosen for other than for being a recognizable face. His wife keeps phoning him about carpet samples and paint colors so it's implied that he's building a house which is probably why he's doing it. The depressed funk he gets from the debasement is a large part of the entire theme of the film (note that [[Sofia Coppola]]'s father, [[Francis Ford Coppola]], did in fact [[Truth in Television|do this with Suntory ads in Japan]], as did Sean Connery, who gets referenced a few times in the movie).
* Referenced in ''[[Mean Girls]]'', although the character appears to consider it unequivocally cool:
{{quote| "I hear {{[[[Alpha Bitch]] Regina}}] does car commercials. In Japan!"}}
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== Live-Action TV ==
* Joey from ''[[Friends]]'' is at one point a mid-level daytime [[Soap Opera]] star and ends up doing this from an advert for Ichiban Lipstick for Men. The advert is very much a [[Weird Japanese Thing]]: Joey is wearing bright blue lipstick while bright blue animation and dancing schoolgirls interject a number of flash cuts. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2CQTnYcFGg You watch it, you can't un-watch it].
* Mo Harris on ''[[Eastenders]]'', of all beings, makes reference to the practice as part of an [[Aesop]] about how you should never sell stolen goods near your home turf and should do it a few boroughs away instead (it's not a very [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop|good moral]]). ''[[Eastenders]]'' is fond of transparent ploys to be relevant so most likely, one of the writers saw ''[[Lost in Translation (Filmfilm)|Lost in Translation]]'' one night and then spend several months trying to work it into a script.
* In the ''Chinatown'' episode of ''[[Entourage]]'', Ari persuades Vince to do a very well paid Chinese energy drink commercial.
* In one episode of ''[[Leverage (TV)|Leverage]]'', part of Elliot's cover is a (fake) Japanese energy drink commercial that Hardison whipped together.
* ''The Big Book of [[Top Gear]]'' features [[The Faceless|The]] [[Memetic Badass|Stig]] in one such ad.
* On ''[[Would I Lie to You]]'', one of Jimmy Carr's lies was that he'd done a commercial for snuff (of all things) in Japan.
* ''[[30 Rock (TV)|30 Rock]]'' has Jenna doing one of these ads for a Japanese energy drink. It involves a random face punch.
* In ''[[Hot in Cleveland]]'' Victoria dreams of the day that she's achieved enough fame that she can sell out for a boatload of money. She ends up doing a commercial for adult diapers. (They preserve the freshness of crotch!)
* Conan O'Brien did a [[Super Bowl Special]] commercial for Bud Light, where he did an embarrassing ad in Sweden which got released in the United States. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d13MkCDNKlo\].
** He would also use the above Schwarzenegger ads for clips for ''Late Night With Conan O'Brien''.
* On ''[[Don't Trust the B In Apartment 23 (TV)|Don't Trust the B In Apartment 23]]'' [[DawsonsDawson's Creek|James Van der Beek]] filmed an energy drink commercial in Vietnam. As expected it is hilariously bad.
 
 
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* http://www.japander.com/ is a Web site devoted to cataloging these.
* [[Cracked]] has made [http://www.cracked.com/funny-3966-japanese-commercials/ a] [http://www.cracked.com/article_17080_8-humiliating-japanese-ads-starring-oscar-nominees.html few] [http://www.cracked.com/article_14924_the-5-most-ridiculous-celebrity-cameos-in-japanese-ads.html articles] on this.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zb6fKHYCwA This gem] from ''[[The Meth Minute 39 (Web Animation)|The Meth Minute 39]]'' parodies the concept.
* ''[[The Onion]]'' parodies this by having [[Barack Obama]] appear [http://www.theonion.com/articles/obama-earns-money-for-us-by-appearing-in-japanese,21292/ in a Japanese advertisement] to earn money to help the U.S. economy.
 
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