It’s normal for Hollywood celebrities to be featured in international advertisements promoting anything from a local satellite/cable provider to Antivirus Software (see Jackie Chan – Kaspersky) to isotonic drinks. One of the most popular international ads has to be the one Nicolas Cage did for Sankyo a few years ago, where the Kick-Ass star blends into the customary Japanese-ad craziness and goes all insane on us.

It seems Al Pacino has decided to do his first ever endorsement of a product on international grounds, and its for Vittoria Coffee, a family-owned drinks company in Australia. I can only imagine the number of zeroes his cheque carried behind the two initial numbers.

The campaign itself is directed by Oscar winner Barry Levinson (Rain Man), who has just worked with the actor on the HBO movie You Don’t Know Jack, about the life and work of doctor-assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian.

I can only classify the Vittoria Coffee ads as “awkward”, maybe because I’ve never seen Al Pacino do something in this light before. Maybe there’s more to come. Ironically, if you watch these ads, Pacino looks like a man in desperate need of coffee, who at the same time expresses his infatuation with the product. Or maybe he’s on an overdose of coffee…I’m not sure, but it’s definitely one of those.

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