TV and Radio adverts which use an actor instead of the celebrity.
e.g. The obviously fake Johnny Vegas on the implausibly bad Jacomo adverts (previously mentioned - I agree that they are shite).

Or the fake Vic Reeves from the old Churchill ads.

The impersonated and financially cheated "real" person must struggle with insanity every day.
( Jabberwoc misses D.R. and Quinch, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 2:44, 24 replies)

How are they finacially cheated?
Surely for that to be the case, they'd have to do the advert and not get paid for it. I fail to see how not doing something and not being paid for it is being cheated.
( The Awful Puppy Bakery is still bored, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 4:58, closed)

Adverts using really bad impersonations of Peter Dickson
The X Factor announcer.

Every shit radio advert has a crap impersonator trying to do his voice. It's cringeworthy.
(wehttamman via B3ta for microwave, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 5:30, closed)

It really was vic reeves on the Churchill ads

( mictoboy shitting in your cunt since, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 7:27, closed)

It used to be, until he got done for drink driving.
Then they got rid of him as it didn't fit with their message, and got someone else in to try and sound like him.
(FartThroughAWalkieTalkie wished you were dead in ditch on, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 8:53, closed)

Bob Mortimer, I think

(thefuckestuppest cheapened this, on, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 12:28, closed)

he was the dog

(robneymcplum spiced up his life on, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 15:48, closed)

How about all those badly dubbed ads from the States (maybe it's an Oz thing)
You can see it's been transcoded from NTSC (usually looks "soft-focus")and then you have broad Aussie accents dubbed (sometimes early Bruce Lee style) over an ad that basically the ad client was presented with the cost of filming etc. and the comparison cost of using a dubbed ad from the ad houses merkin counterparts and clearly chose the less inferior product.
(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Wed 10 Oct 2012, 7:38, closed)

We get it worse - badly dubbed ads from Europe
...so that the actors' mouths aren't even remotely synching with the English words.

There's one kind where they clearly designed pan-European use in - the speaker's mouth is always obscured, so they can dub it into any language. Often we'll be shown a shot of the person they're talking to, rather than themselves.

Trouble is, once you've seen that, you can't help noticing it every time...
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 9:44, closed)

I saw a fascinating interview with someone who used to do those voiceovers for a living*.
Apparently there is a very fine line with those 'fake' famous voices. They have to make them different enough to be recognisable but not a spot-on impression, even if the voiceover artist is a super-talented mimic who could nail the voice perfectly - to keep out of legal hot water. I find it odd that you have rights over the way your voice sounds if it's well enough known (what if someone sounds precisely like you by chance?) but there you go.

*it may have been Steve Coogan or the rarely-entertaining Rob Brydon
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 8:28, closed)

Rob Brydon
Did this in interview or on an 'improptu' bit on one of those comedy quiz panel things.
( @><|= w0nu!) or cunt to my friends, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 11:58, closed)

I heard that
He is the guy in the More Than ads, y'know 'I'm Morethan Freeman'. The reason that he could do that voice over is that he clearly isn't Morgan Freeman, being a white chap.
However there is no law to say that you can't impersonate someone in an advert. The problem is it sounds like the said famous person is giving their approval to that product or company.
( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Wed 10 Oct 2012, 22:37, closed)

Damn it
Who was it wrote a short story about a man whose voice is used by an imposter for radio adverts and who, as I recall, is later sued by the imposter for using his own voice? I read it recently but I can't remember where.
(ubergeekian, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 8:53, closed)

Sounds like classic Apeloverage to me.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 9:43, closed)

No, much older.
1950s, maybe, or perhaps earlier. Damn, this is annoying. It was in a collection of shirt stories, I'm pretty sure.
(ubergeekian, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 13:08, closed)

Did the book have a nice jacket?
I hope you can collar the offending story. Button the other hand...
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 14:17, closed)

There was a Hancock episode that was along those lines
Harpers Cornflakes
( Michael Ellis contributes nothing, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 19:38, closed)

Forever in our hearts.

( Fucking hell Jeff I am not a robot, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 22:40, closed)

Unless your Patrick Stewart, even though its him doing the money supermarket ad, it has come to the point through repeated exposure on shit radio stations i'm forced to listen to at work, where i am really starting to wish harm upon the man, that bald fucker must have enough cash to pay the bills by now surely.
(Finster Ate a cat biscuit for a bet, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 10:32, closed)

It's to probably pay for his legal battle with a shooting club that existed BEFORE he moved next to it.

(oneinthepink is at your cervix m'lady, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 11:49, closed)

*you're

(thefuckestuppest cheapened this, on, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 12:29, closed)

I thought
that the Vic Reeves (Churchill) was his real voice.

I seem remember when he got nicked for piss-driving into a load of cars in his Jag that Churchill terminated his contract.
(dchurch bah, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 16:36, closed)

This is correct, dchurch poster - entirely correct.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 17:33, closed)

bob mortimer was the dog
reeves fucked it all up by crashing into a ditch, dont know how this affected the renault clio advert though....
(robneymcplum spiced up his life on, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 17:36, closed)

He is in a TV advert for one of the train companies. I assume he was selected due to it being widely known he isn't allowed to drive, so has to get the train.

( Fucking hell Jeff I am not a robot, Wed 10 Oct 2012, 22:39, closed)