There are spokespeople and then there was Ricardo Montalban, who died yesterday at age 88. Between his debonair looks and Spanish accent, he could sell anything and often did.
Here he is in 1983 extolling the virtues of Maxwell House ground coffee. Notice the way he twirls the cup of coffee below his nose and elongates
"superb." He takes a sip and then sighs contentedly. By the end of the commercial you feel like a dolt for having ever considered any coffee
besides Maxwell House.
The
product he's best known for hawking was the Chrysler Cordoba. In the
70s, Chrysler was in about as bad of shape as it is now, but
Montalban's endorsement of the Cordoba (a pretty crappy car) helped
make it a success. Legend has it he improvised the line about "soft Corinthian leather." In reality,
there was no such thing as Corinthian leather but the public
didn't care. If Montalban gave it his accented OK, it was good
to go.
Somewhere up in heaven now, he's driving his freshly washed Cordoba while drinking a nice hot cup of Maxwell coffee.
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