The Brothers also did Marlboro or (maybe Chesterfield?) ads in the early '60's and they all still smoked when I joined the group. They've all quit now, thankfully.
The most beneficial endorsement deal that we did while I was a member was for Yamaha guitars. When we arrived in Japan for our annual tour one year I asked our Japanese road manager if he could possibly get me a deal on a Yamaha F-150, a guitar that I'd played at Brothers Four music and really wanted as a kick-around-the-house instrument. He came back to us a week later and told us that if we would agree to endorse Yamaha guitars they would give us each a guitar of our choice.
Perhaps the intent of the offer was lost in translation somewhere, but it was clearly stated to us, "the guitar of your choice." So I went down to the Yamaha store in the Ginza and picked a beautiful abalone-to-death-inlaid guitar that was rotating around in a glass display case. I think the Yamaha folks were a little surprised with my choice, because I heard a lot of hissing (Japanese for "OMG") when I stated my preference. Well, all the other guys in the group got a very nice but standard model but I did, in fact, get "the guitar of my choice." I found out years later that John Denver had owned the same model and his sold for $30,000 after his death. (I told Meri that guitar is my life insturance.)
Anyway, we did a photo shoot for Yamaha, playing our new guitars, which subsequently came out in print ads, posters and TV spots for Yamaha guitars. Then we went off on our tour.
The way those tours were organized was that a production company was hired to carry all the PA and lighting gear plus our instruments and larger luggage pieces from venue to venue by truck. They'd travel at night after our show and get the stage set up at the next stop in time for our pre-show sound check. They would put all our instruments and luggage in the dressing room ready for us when we arrived. After a good night's rest we'd travel to the next town via the famous Japanese bullet trains.
One day we arrived at the venue for sound check to find that our dressing room had been broken into. I was toting a B.C. Rich 12-string that was a piece of crap. The action at the 12-fret was almost 1/2 inch and I could only play it in open position. In that same dressing room was John Paine's original Martin D-28 that was used on the recording of "Greenfields." For some reason the theif took my crappy 12-string and left the D-28.
I was actually kind of relieved to have that guitar out of my life, but I played the role of mourning the loss of my beloved guitar. With many "gomen-nasai"s the production company agreed to replace my instrument with anything my heart desidred. I said, well how 'bout a Yamaha abalone-to-death inlaid 12-string to match my new Yamaha 6-string? So they took me to the Yamaha factory and I met all the big-wigs and the guy who had built my 6-string, and we designed my 12-string to match. It took a year to build it and I was presented with it in some typically formal Japanese ceremony when we arrived for the following year's tour. It's the guitar I'm holding in my promo shot - see the top photo on my home page. I will be a life-long endorser of Yamaha guitars.
By the way, The Kingston Trio did some great 7-up ads in the early years. They were like little skits made up around KT songs adapted to be 7-up commercials. My favorite was based on "Olie Olie Anna." (don't think I spelled that right.)
Responses