Who's got perfect pitch? Bill Cosby, Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, and Barbara Walters, according to Total Research Corp., a Princeton, N.J., marketing firm that asked 2,000 consumers which celebrity out of a roster of 54 was most likely to heighten the image of a product. The study then asked these consumers to evaluate specific brands and combined this data to determine which item these luminaries were most likely to enhance. See if you can come up with the ideal people-product pairings the research revealed for the celebrities and products below:
1. Jack Nicholson
2. Meryl Streep
3. Arnold Schwarzenegger
4. Dolly Parton
5. Dan Rather
6. The Pope
a. Cheerios
b. Pepsi
c. Volvo
d. Duracell battery
e. Levi's jeans
f. No nonsense pantyhose
What's the link? ''We match brands with celebrities who project a similar aura,'' says study creator and TRC senior vice president John Morton. He describes Nicholson (1) and Levis (E) as ''cool without trying''; Dan Rather (5) as ''a no-nonsense type'' (F); Arnold Schwarzenegger (3) as ''powerful, potent'' — exactly what you'd want from a battery (D); and Dolly Parton (4) as ''cheery, down-home, and old-fashioned,'' just like the cereal (A). Meanwhile, Streep (2), like the Volvo (C), has intellectual appeal. As for the Pope (6), he's ''accessible, humble, and easygoing,'' the same adjectives consumers use to describe a certain cola (B). And though he hasn't signed on just yet, his endorsement would certainly lend new meaning to ''the right one, baby.'' Uh-huh.
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