K-Fed pokes fun at himself in Super Bowl ad
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Aspiring rapper Kevin Federline, the estranged husband of Britney Spears, said he never meant to insult the fast-food industry with a Super Bowl advertisement in which he plays a fry cook dreaming of stardom.
The ad for insurance company Nationwide Financial Services debuted on the company's Web site on Monday and has already stirred up controversy ahead of the Sunday game, emerging as the season's most talked about spot.
Last week, a leading restaurant association described the 30-second ad as demeaning to industry workers and asked for it to be dumped.
Federline, 28, known as K-Fed, said in an interview that the commercial is only meant to poke fun at himself -- a fact that made him initially wary of taking on the project.
"I was skeptical at first," Federline said on Monday. "The whole idea of poking fun at myself -- that's where I was iffy."
Federline, whose resume includes stints as a fry cook and pizza deliveryman, said he was pleased with the result and hoped others would get the joke.
"We're really not trying to insult anybody," said Federline, who has taken ribbing himself in tabloids for his shaky music career and relationship with Spears, who filed for divorce last November.
His first album sold just 6,500 copies in its first week, and a number of dates on his U.S. tour were canceled due to lack of interest in the former back-up dancer's music.
The commercial will air during the third quarter of the Super Bowl on CBS and begins with Federline -- draped in fur coats, fedoras and gold jewelry -- rapping a song, "Rollin' VIP," in what appears to be a music video.
But the music video turns out to be a fry cook's daydream, one that is interrupted by an angry restaurant manager.
"Federline!" the manager screams, "Fries!"
A voice-over then proclaims: "Life comes at you fast. A Nationwide annuity could guarantee you income for life."
Nationwide hit on the notion of using Federline for the campaign after a series of ideas the company's top ad executive called "too sappy" for the event.
When the rap singer's name came up, said Nationwide VP of Advertising Steven Schreibman, "I thought, 'Oh my God, Kevin Federline, his story epitomizes everything the campaign has been about."'
The spot, developed by T:M, a unit of Interpublic Group, can be seen on www.nationwide.com. It will not be broadcast on TV until the February 4 Super Bowl, an event that is traditionally the biggest sporting spectacle of the year.
The game is likely to attract 90 million viewers, many of whom are as interested in the commercials as the game, making it a key date for advertisers. This year 30-second spots are fetching up to $2.6 million.
Schreibman acknowledges that the controversy stemming from the National Restaurant Association's complaint has helped raise the profile of the spot. "He gave us a week's worth of ad coverage," he said.
Indeed, media research firm Nielsen BuzzMetrics recently found that the ad represented about one-quarter of all blog conversations related to Super Bowl advertising -- more than any other subject.
"We wanted something that would break away from the pack. We wanted something that would be talked about," said Schreibman, who last year picked male model Fabio to star in the company's Super Bowl ad.
Federline, who will watch the Super Bowl from Nationwide's box seats, said he hoped more acting roles were ahead after the advertisement and a guest spot on the crime drama CSI.
"The acting thing is very much on my mind," he said.
