The weirdest use of TV and film characters in adverts

If any character from Pulp Fiction was going to advertise insurance, I’d always hoped it would be The Gimp – still, Harvey Keitel’s Winston “The Wolf” Wolfe was a close second.

Stalking the mean streets of the UK, Winston never fully convinces that he’s given up The Life to handle ineffectual face-to-face customer interaction. From the way he scouts a room to his veiled references to violence, it’s clear what’s going on – the Wolf is still working, and he’s suckered DirectLine into providing a neat little alibi. Genius.

4. Morpheus (Kia)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diPICUxtRdo

Sure, you could argue that Laurence Fishburne’s reprisal of his original character Morpheus – having presumably retired from the liberation of an enslaved, battery-serving human race to act as a sort of valet to rich people – undermines the sci-fi purity of the original Matrix movie. You could even point out that at no point during The Matrix did Morpheus ever belt out Nessun Dorma, or even indicate an interest in opera (though presumably operatic voice is a skill he could programme into himself like his Kung-fu abilities).

You could say all that, and it’d be true – but you have to admit, this 2014 Superbowl advert is still miles better than the Matrix sequels. Point to Kia.

3. Yoda (Vodafone)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqZ_iE41w8c

Millennia on from his struggle against the forces of darkness and the Empire, a resurrected Yoda now hangs around in bowling alleys, and tries to help people with their phone queues by levitating lots of bowling balls because…uh…Star Wars? Right, kids?

Perhaps the worst crime, however, is that there’s not even an ATTEMPT to make some kind of Yoda-fone gag. The force is not strong with this one.