The Buccaneer's Brand

With Movie Tie-Ins, Advertisers Tap Into the Enduring Appeal of Storybook Pirates

ARRRR!

There be pirates about!

Walt Disney Co.'s "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" hits theaters on Friday during a hail of marketing tie-ins pelting consumers like grapeshot.

Volvo, Kodak, McDonald's, Kellogg's, Visa, Gibson guitars, MySpace, Verizon, MSN Messenger, Valpak, M&M candies and, naturally, the Bahamas tourist board have all latched on to the sequel to the surprise 2003 blockbuster, "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl."

When it was announced that Disney would make the first "Pirates" movie, plenty scoffed: A movie based on an amusement park ride? Talk about running out of ideas.

The laughter abruptly stopped after the movie grossed $47 million in its opening weekend and ended up with $653 million in worldwide revenue. Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow was a strange and likable character, a sort of fey Keith Richards in pirate garb (essentially, indistinguishable from Keith Richards garb), good enough to receive an Oscar nod.

This time, the corporate sponsors couldn't board fast enough.

Part of the appeal speaks to the popularity of the film franchise. But another part speaks to the enduring appeal of the pirate, or at least the storybook notion of a buccaneer. From the "Pirates of Penzance" to Long John Silver's, pirates have been a reliable draw for decades.

And, like barnacles to the hull of a frigate, others have latched on to the "Pirates" launch, though they are not official sponsors or partners. The History Channel's "True Caribbean Pirates" airs two days after the movie opens, and Legoland, a California amusement park, last month opened its Pirate Shores ride.

Oren Aviv, vice president of marketing for Disney Studios, said he doesn't mind the hangers-on. "It only confirms, at least in my mind, that we have something really amazing here," he said. "We had a number of sponsors last time, but not as much stuff going on as this time." Aviv said he turned down a couple of potential sponsors because either they didn't bring enough cash and clout to the table or their brands didn't match up well with "Pirates."

Depp's Sparrow is the kind of a pirate that makes kids don eye patches at Halloween and grown men walk around the office growling, "Arrrr!" Sparrow is a thief, but he is a clever scoundrel, a rapscallion, more likely to do harm to his standing in the pirate community than to an enemy. He is a thumbed nose in the face of British colonial authority, i.e., he sticks it to ye olde man. Sparrow's is an image advertisers love because they know that many of their customers imagine those traits in themselves.

And, for some reason, people (especially guys) can't seem to get enough of pirates. Witness the 20,000 views of a throwaway "Saturday Night Live" skit on YouTube that featured a pirate convention whose keynote speaker was actor Peter Sarsgaard, just because the pirates liked saying his name. ("Sarrrs-gaarrrrd!") There are an annual Talk Like a Pirate Day (Sept. 19)]; a Web site that generates a pirate name for you; and PirateMod, a Web site that sells "alternative fashion with a piratical attitude."