Dead Celebs Can Still Move Product

Dead celebrities are more popular than ever with digital technology's abilities to show Fred Astaire dancing with a Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner and John Wayne endorsing Coors beer.

Thus, it's important for marketers to know which dead celebrities remain popular with the still-living consuming public.

Here's the list of the top dead celebs, as reported by Ad Age:

1 Lucille Ball (pictured, above left)
2 Bob Hope
3 John Wayne
4 Jimmy Stewart
5 Charles Schulz
6 Red Skelton
7 Johnny Carson
8 John Ritter
9 Jackie Gleason
10 Michael Landon
11 Katherine Hepburn
12 Elvis Presley
13 Carroll O’Connor
14 George Burns
15 Three Stooges
16 Walter Matthau
17 Cary Grant
(Data compiled by Marketing Evaluations, Manhasset, N.Y.)

The inclusion of the Three Stooges sorta surprised me. I was never a huge fan of the Three Stooges, but I've noticed my attention is piqued when a TV commercial featuring them is shown. I can't remember what the commercial is trying to sell, but I liked seeing them again.
So far as I've noticed, the widows of John Ritter and Johnny Carson haven't signed off on any commercial endorsements, but you can imagine they get a lot of pitches. I suppose the widows will have to weigh what their dead spouses would want against the monetary gain and the monetary need, then consider the possible public backlash against, say, Johnny Carson selling a Cadillac. It wouldn't offend me. It may not convince me to buy a Cadillac, but, like the Three Stooges ads, I'd like seeing Johnny again.
[AdAge.com]