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Glutton for abuse, or marketing genius?

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, 9/30/07

Abstract:

The camera zooms in on Dennis Hopper, dressed in black and standing in a field of flowers next to a single fire-engine-red Eames chair. It's an image that could be right out of the quirky actor's latest off-the-wall film project. But it's an ad designed to get baby boomers to see an Ameriprise financial adviser.

Hopper, who is known for playing a hippie biker in "Easy Rider," a sadistic captor in "Blue Velvet" and a mad bomber in "Speed," has been appearing in Ameriprise commercials for more than a year. In that time, the ads have created a lot of buzz. The satirical newspaper the Onion in May took on the choice of the 71-year-old Hopper as a spokesman. There are even parody commercials on YouTube that blast Ameriprise products for being expensive and subpar.

While Ameriprise, which boasts 2.8 million clients and $446 billion in assets as of year-end 2006, certainly did not expect the commercials to be the butt of jokes, they are pleased with the campaign, and launched a new series of ads last month created by Satchi & Satchi and featuring Hopper. This time around, television commercials are accompanied by spots on the Web. Ameriprise has also paired up with National Geographic to create videos of people fulfilling their dreams with the help of an Ameriprise adviser, an effort that they hope will appeal to Generation X as well as to boomers.

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