Elvis is a hit again - on ads in England

Elvis Presley, the King of Rock 'n' Roll, has been putting in more public appearances than anyone in the royal family in Britain recently as a host of advertisers - from Internet services to deodorant makers to even the conservative Tory party - invoke his hip-shaking ways to stir up business.

Elvis, who died in 1977, never performed in concert here. He planted his blue suede shoes on British soil for only a few hours in 1960, at Scotland's Prestwick airport, during a layover on his return from military service in Germany. And, of course, the United Kingdom has plenty of its own crooners to idolize if it wants to be nostalgic, most notably the Beatles.

But it is Elvis' image that adorns television, radio and outdoor advertising spots here. On posters on double-decker buses and in the London Underground, Unilever's Sure deodorant digitally changed a photo of Elvis in a black shirt to add in a white deodorant stain under his arms. The AOL unit of Time Warner Inc. is using an Elvis impersonator in its new U.K. ads for its new service AOL 9.0.

And the Conservative Party, whose elderly and buttoned-down bedrock voters might have been just the types to be appalled by Elvis 40 years ago, last month unveiled the king's 'A Little Less Conversation' as the theme song for its campaign for a national election expected next spring.

The tune, written for the 1968 Elvis movie 'Live a Little, Love a Little' was remixed and released as a single in 2002, becoming a huge hit in Britain. It was adopted by the Conservatives to showcase the party's new theme of more action - and implicitly draw a contrast with Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party, which Conservatives criticize as being long on spin and short on results.

'Few people would expect the Tories to use an Elvis Presley song but one of the things that we wanted to do was add a little humor', says Charles Hendry, deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. The party considered numerous other songs from artists including the Beatles as well as patriotic tunes, he says, adding: 'Elvis is a global icon now'.

As icons go, he is also relatively cheap - a major reason why advertisers are so keen to use his image. U.K. marketers don't have to pay royalties to use digitally altered images of dead celebrities under British trademark laws, says Todd Morgan, director of media and creative development at Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc., the business entity created by the Estate of Elvis Presley/The Elvis Presley Trust, whose sole owner is the singer's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley. Advertisers in the U.S. must pay for such use, he says. And the company charges everyone, including the British, for using Elvis' recordings, negotiating the price depending on the song and how much is played, Morgan says. He declines to specify.

Elvis Presley Enterprises welcomes the advertising dollars. A few years ago, the company sent information to marketers alerting them that Elvis was available.

'We want to hear from ad agencies. We consider every proposal on its merit', Mr. Morgan says. On his home turf in the U.S., Elvis has appeared over the years in ads for Apple Computer's iMac, Toyota cars, Energizer batteries and Unilever's Lipton Tea.

Advertisers who simply rely on Elvis impersonators, however, don't have to pay royalty fees. They also get the added element of camp humor.

In AOL's television commercials, a Chinese man dressed as Elvis looks up information about Elvis online before heading off to an Elvis convention. In the background, 'Suspicious Minds' (1969) plays.

The ads, which appear just in the U.K., appeal to the British because Elvis was a star with humble, relatable roots, says Martin Cole, a planning partner at Grey Global Group's London unit, which created the Elvis ads for AOL. AOL paid for 'Suspicious Minds', but didn't owe anything for the impersonator.

'We wouldn't have wanted Elvis even if we could have had him', says Cole. 'He wouldn't have been right. We get all the fame of Elvis but are able to tell the story of an ordinary person'.

Associated British Foods PLC uses an Elvis impersonator in television ads for its Kingsmill bread. The U.K. bread maker uses fake footage of 'Elvis' coming off the plane at Prestwick airport and then spins a tale that the singer secretly stayed behind in England to invent its bread. The spot also shows scenes of the impersonator in a 1960s kitchen baking bread.

J. Walter Thompson, the WPP Group ad agency that created the Kingsmill ad, auditioned dozens of Elvis impersonators. Small London ad firm CAKE cooked up some bad puns that it plans to use in upcoming print and online ads to play on Elvis' recordings: 'Bake, Rattle and Roll' and 'Hunka Hunka Burnin' Loaf'.

British pop-music charts frequently feature old songs, but Elvis' music, in particular, has shown a remarkable ability to stay popular in the U.K. Two years ago, after Nike Inc. used 'A Little Less Conversation', remixed by artist JXL, during soccer's World Cup for its ads in 60 countries, the song was released as a single and shot to the top of the U.K. charts. That gave Elvis 18 No. 1 hits in Britain over the years and finally put him one ahead of the Beatles. This month, the 50th-anniversary rerelease of Elvis' first single, 'That's All Right', is No. 3 on charts here, behind singles from Usher and Britney Spears.

Some Beatles fans, seeking to find links between the two biggest-ever hitmakers in the U.K., note that the Beatles were fans of Elvis, traveling to meet him at his home in 1965. Last year, a museum exhibit of Elvis memorabilia claiming to be the largest outside the U.S. opened in - where else? - Liverpool.

'You'll find a lot of Beatles fans are Elvis fans', says Dave Bedford, a guide in Liverpool for Beatles tours who sings Elvis on his karaoke machine.

In London, avid Elvis fan Cathy Mathews frequently eats at Gracelands Palace, a restaurant where Paul Hyu, who stars in the AOL Elvis commercial, performs nearly every weekend.

The real Elvis 'has been dead for decades, and here he is still making people happy', says Mathews. Still, after seeing Elvis ads, she isn't more inclined to eat Kingsmill bread or buy Sure deodorant. 'That would just be silly, wouldn't it?'

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