A very important message from Chris Farley--from beyond the grave.
Eight years after his fatal overdose, the late Saturday Night Live funnyman has been resurrected for a series of billboard advertisements plugging a new treatment for drug and alcohol abuse from Hythiam Inc.
Farley's body was found Dec. 18, 1997, in his Chicago apartment. A coroner ruled that Farley died inadvertently as a result of a deadly cocktail of morphine and cocaine. He was 33.
The first sign which went up in Los Angeles, features Farley's image with the slogan "It wasn't all his fault." The billboard will be erected on the Sunset Strip adjacent to Hollywood's Chateau Marmont, the famed hotel where Farley's idol and another SNL star, John Belushi, died in 1982, also at the age of 33 from an accidental overdose of heroin and cocaine.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the ads mark the first time that Farley's estate has okayed the use of his image for commercial purposes since his death.
Hythiam, a fast-growing Los Angeles-based medical firm, reportedly paid $25,000 to his family for the right to use the image. The company's chief executive, Terren S. Peizer, says the ads will let people battling drug and alcohol addiction know that there are alternative treatments for their disease.
The billboards focus on a new outpatient prescription drug treatment called Prometa. "We felt it was an effective way of getting people to focus on our message point, because it's unusual to see a celebrity in this fashion," Peizer told the Times.
But the ads are not without controversy. "It's completely tasteless to harness the dead for commercial gain," Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert--a nonprofit advertising watchdog based in Portland, Oregon--told E! Online. "The ads are deceptive because they suggest Chris would still be alive today if he took Prometa. What evidence is there that's true? My understanding is that Farley died of an overdose of morphine and cocaine, and the drug doesn't even treat opiates," he added. "This is part of a trend by ad agencies that shows no respect for the dead. It's also part of how the greed in the advertising industry has no shame at all, and neither does the company."
Source: Yahoo
Posted by Lawren at April 5, 2006 05:42 AM
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I'm sorry Chris killed himself but, "It wasn't all his fault"?? Who's fault was it? This is a perfect example of what's wrong with America today.
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Nanc' at April 5, 2006 07:03 AM
Anything that will help a drug addict is good. To many young people try them and get addicted and then its a very, very long journey back to reality and soberness. I know, my own daughter is having the same problem now and 4 rehabs later shes still struggling. So right on with the post mortem ads, I say!!!
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Janice at April 5, 2006 08:38 PM
are you kidding me? you're sorry chris killed himself!?! His death was accidental, not suicide. Also, he was scheduled to re-enter rehad around the time of his death. He was seeking help for his problem. If his death was anybody's fault, it would be Heidi's, the woman he was with that night that left him, knowing he was in danger, who also,after leaving, returned to take pictures of him, dead.
Know the whole story before you comment on something, especially on such a touchy subject such as this.
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Jess at April 10, 2006 07:48 AM