09.16 GQ 218 Dan Winters ® GQ’S Guide to BEING THE BEST BRAND YOU CAN BE Starring DANNY M¢BRIDE Remember when “selling out” was the worst thing an artist could do? If you licensed your song to an ad, you were a sellout. If you let them make your novel into a movie, you were a sellout. If you wanted to make a commercial, you had to do it in Korea so no one here would see it. But now? Everyone does it. Oscar winners. Knighted sirs. Even Bob Dylan. And no one cares! The big risk now isn’t selling out—it’s doing it wrong. GQ teamed up with DANNY MC BRIDE and his Vice Principals co-star WALTON GOGGINS to demonstrate how to sell out without selling your soul GQ’S Guide to BEING THE BEST BRAND YOU CAN BE rief History o A B f SELLING OUT THE BEATNIKS AT THE 1965 Newport Folk Festival should have known something was up when Bob Dylan walked onstage, trailing a suspicious cord behind him. He plugged in his Stratocaster and launched into “Maggie’s Farm,” but he may as well have been performing a Puccini aria, since he was barely audible over the boos. The charge: The harmonica-tootling folk king had Sold Out. But when We’re we look back through the Snapchat filter of 2016, it’s clear what he was really doing: expanding his brand. Okay with When pop stars began signing endorsement deals in It If You the ’80s, they weren’t just accused of dumbing down their art but of exsanguinating its authenticity. Madonna feigned REALLY Pollyanna purity in Pepsi commercials, and even David Commit Bowie, the ghostly prince of the avant-garde, slummed it Ryan Reynolds in Japanese sake ads. When electro-elf is an actor, a man, Moby licensed every song on his album and a deeply Play to brands like Nordstrom and committed brand ambassador of Volkswagen Polo, he found himself in Swiss watch artistic purgatory, too pervasive for original manufacturer Piaget. fans and too weird for anyone not looking —MAGGIE LANGE to buy a German supermini. Musicians GQ: If you were In 1965, Bob Dylan didn’t even need to align with companies stuck on a desert was asked what to earn the scorn of the sellout police. island, which three product he would Piaget watches ever sell out for. After Metallica hired a producer who had would you bring? His response? worked with Bon Jovi, chat rooms filled Ryan Reynolds: “Ladies’ garments.” with metal geeks whining about how Two Polos and Four decades an Altiplano. The later, the voice mainstream they’d become. Commitment Altiplano, I love. of a generation to artistic purity had curdled into hair- It’s so beautiful. appeared in a splitting snobbishness. What I really need Victoria’s Secret Everything changed as the ’90s progressed. is a desert island. commercial, fulfilling his Hip-hop was about upward mobility; the What type of prophecy and conspicuous presence of platinum and watchband paving the Patrón didn’t undermine artists’ success, best represents way for these your soul? enterprising it legitimized it. After Jay Z blew up in If you’re talking about celebrity heroes. 1998, he eviscerated the false dichotomy of a soul, and a soul is authenticity and wealth, acquiring critical transcendent, a metal watchband. That’s acclaim along with a portfolio of partnerships and investments: a dangerous question. Samsung, Budweiser, Tidal. Unlike with the sellouts of the What if I was like ’80s and ’90s, Jay Z’s hustle was part of his artistic narrative, crocodile skin? the scrappy Brooklyn drug dealer made good. Which Piaget As hip-hop and its Midas values have seeped into the watch represents mainstream, selling out is no longer a transgressive act. It’s now humankind as it currently exists mandatory to extend your tentacles into brands—as long as you on earth? do it right. Alicia Vikander and Vuitton pair like champagne I don’t believe that a and caviar. Matthew McConaughey’s Lincoln commercials Piaget watch reflects the nature of our align perfectly with the machismo kitsch of the McConaissance. society right now. It When Gwyneth Paltrow endorses a $15,000 dildo on Goop, reflects the nature she’s luxuriating in her “other half” wellness branding. of how we could be, But few have done it with the cocky insolence of Bob Dylan, how we would want to be. The world is the OG sellout. Dylan doesn’t need to expand his brand in a state of slightly anymore, but he’s doing it anyway—a middle finger to his perplexed chaos right Newport hecklers. Over the past 15 years, Dylan has appeared now. A Piaget watch is the utopian destiny in commercials for Victoria’s Secret, Pepsi, Chrysler. At 75, he to which we are doesn’t give a fuck. And neither does anyone else.—EMILY LANDAU inexorably marching. AT SCHNEIDER NICOLE STYLIST: HOLLYWOOD. WORKS ART AT MURPHY ED DESIGN: SET WINTERS. KATHRYN AND YEAGER KINNEY. BRIAN DAVE AND PRODUCER: DOUGLASS JORJEE MAKEUP: EFFECTS SPECIAL GROUP. WALL THE AT KEATING CHERI GROOMING: GROUP. WALL THE What celebs bring to your brand, according to the Davie-Brown celebrity marketing index • TRUST: Morgan Freeman • INFLUENCE: Kate Middleton KELSEY DAKE 09.16 GQ 221 DIDDY 1989: Starred in TIME Tim Burton’s film WARNER CABLE revival of Batman. KATHY BATES DIRECTV 2014: In Birdman, portrayed an aging actor haunted JEFFREY TAMBOR by the superhero CHRISTOPHER GUEST DIRECTV he played as a CABLE GUYS DIRECTV young movie star. The Long Arc 2016: Cast as the villain in next of the Perfect Sellout: year’s Spider-Man: MICHAEL KEATON Homecoming. LIEV SCHREIBER TIME WARNER ROB LOWE DRAKE CABLE DIRECTV With a little help, Walton Goggins has enough energy to TIME WARNER clean THE WHOLE HOUSE. CABLE JUSTIN BIEBER ADAM LEVINE DIDDY PROACTIV PROACTIV PROACTIV JENNIFER GARNER KATY PERRY NEUTROGENA PROACTIV UNLICENSED DERMATOLOGISTS QUVENZHANÉ WALLIS MASERATI ALEC BALDWIN WILLEM DAFOE MERCEDES HULU WHIPS CAPITAL ONE MATTHEW M c CONAUGHEY re Thing ere A s Tha LINCOLN Th t AMAZON ECHO MONEY CAN’T BUY NEW ERA Wisdom from the agents behind celeb paydays JULIA “Beyoncé turned “Anne Hathaway was “Up on that stage, DISNEY AMY POEHLER LOUIS-DREYFUS WORLD down a Facebook o≠ered $500,000 by it’s all the same shit. OLD NAVY OLD NAVY post for a hair brand. some billionaire in, It doesn’t matter Her people said, like, Bahrain to come if it’s a bar mitzvah. ‘You can come up and have dinner.” It’s more, ‘Am with $2 million—she —Mike Esterman I doing this for some won’t take it.’ ” [Editors’ note: dictator’s kids?’ ” —Mike Heller She did not go.] —Steve Einzig SENSIBLE DENIM APPEAL: Robin Williams • FAMILIARITY: George W. Bush FRED ARMISEN PAUL DANO OLD NAVY GAP our Map to the DANIEL CRAIG Y HEINEKEN WILL BRAD PITT FERRELL HEINEKEN BUD LIGHT (SELLOUT) STARS There’s a galaxy of branding JENNIFER CLIVE OWEN ANISTON opportunities out there PATRICK THREE SWAYZE WATER OLIVES HELEN MIRREN PBR BUDWEISER VERNE TROYER GEICO JULIA ROBERTS DOOMSDAY PREP LAVAZZA BOOZE LINDSAY LOHAN GEORGE CLOONEY ESURANCE NESPRESSO GWYNETH PALTROW CHEVY CHASE STIMULANTS MARTINI & ROSSI DORITOS CHARLIZE AL PACINO THERON FRIENDS OF OBESITY VITTORIA MARTINI & ROSSI DAVID LYNCH SIGNATURE ARNOLD CUP SCHWARZENEGGER BUD LIGHT RACHAEL RAY DUNKIN’ L e BRON JAMES DONUTS M c DONALD’S BRADLEY COOPER TOM HIDDLESTON H Ä AGEN- DAZS JAGUAR WHOOPI GOLDBERG POISE JAMIE LEE JOHN STAMOS CURTIS OIKOS ACTIVIA STEVEN TYLER PLUMBING SKITTLES PROBLEMS JAMES FRANCO CAM NEWTON SCION OIKOS MERYL STREEP LISA RINNA AMERICAN EXPRESS STEPHEN DEPEND COLBERT SAMUEL L. WONDERFUL TINA FEY JACKSON PISTACHIOS AMERICAN CAPITAL EXPRESS NUT STUFF ONE ROBERT D e NIRO JENNIFER GARNER AMERICAN EXPRESS KEVIN BACON CAPITAL ONE VISA KATE M c KINNON CREDIT SHARKS MASTERCARD SEE ADDITIONAL CREDITS. CREDITS. ADDITIONAL SEE 09.16 CHARLIE SHEEN KATE WINSLET GQ LELO AMERICAN CONDOMS EXPRESS 223 This season’s most herculean exertions mbodied Old-Guy V Dise oices are occurring not on the NFL field but in the bleached halls of a suburban high school, as Danny McBride ➻ and MAKE BANK Walton Goggins vie to become its head administrator. We talked to three-time Ever swelled with pride for humanity while watching a Visa ad? Worried that your family is going to explode because it isn’t “in good hands”? Wanted to sellout McBride (K-Swiss, Southern eat at Arby’s, even though it’s Arby’s? Congratulations—you’ve been Comfort, PlayStation), star of HBO’s manipulated by the voice of an old man. See if you can match the AARP-eligible Vice Principals, about something actor to the corporation he’s imbued with wisdom and gravitas. even nobler than the education of America’s youth: ads.—CAITY WEAVER What commercial jingle will be lodged in your brain until you die? GQ When I was a kid, there was a karate school in northern Virginia. Their ad was two little kids who would DM say, “Nobody bothuhs me.” “Nobody Ving James Rhames Earl Jones bothuhs me, either!” Then it would cut to a shot of a bunch of people doing karate in a field, and the song was like, [singing] “Call U.S.A. 1000! You will...fight for life!” So you have strong brand loyalty to that dojo. Are you usually a devoted customer? Like, do you use store loyalty cards? I read some crazy story about a guy who was getting workers’ comp. [His employers] hired a private detective and accessed, I think, his grocery-rewards Morgan Dennis card and saw that he was, like, buying alcohol Freeman Haysbert and shit on certain days, which went against [the lost time] he was claiming.