Celebrity Tech Endorsements: 5 Cool and 5 Highly Annoying Examples Of Product Pimpage

Annoying but effective.

Celebrity endorsements are nothing new. They have been around as long as there were celebrities and companies willing to pay them to say they smoked Kool's or drove Chevy, or force us to explain to children and the elderly why we would giggle every time we saw the milk-stained upper lip of a famous person in a "Got Milk?" ad.

The truth is, companies pay lots of money for these endorsements because they work. Who knows why anyone would think that an ad featuring J Lo literally killing people on the street with her gyrating hips would sell cars made by Fiat, but apparently, it does just that.

In the world of technology, celebs pushing product is a trickier business, but they keep at it working customers on everything from software to appliances and everything in between. Here's a look at five cool and five highly annoying endorsements of technology by the glitterati.

The Cool

5. LL Cool J -- Boomdizzle
One thing that often feels like a disconnect in celebrity endorsements is the fact that what they endorse has nothing to do with their line of work. At least with athletes, they sign on with athletic equipment manufacturers. Rapper LL Cool J followed suit with a social network for musicians. Earlier this year, he launched a new app that goes with the service that fosters collaboration between musicians over the Internet.

4. Tony Hawk -- Activision
Athletes love video games and Tony Hawk has made an empire out of his killer skateboard video games, going so far as to create a "ride board" for the Wii that lets gamers simulate what being outside is like, if it was weather-controlled and filled with television screens.

3. Jonah Hill -- Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3
I have a soft spot for Jonah Hill because of my love for Superbad, but his ad with Sam Worthington and Dwight Howard for COD was truly super bad. The young actor is coming into his own with a recent Academy Award nomination. Here's hoping he hops on some more cool endorsements. Companies could use his sense of humor.

2. John Madden -- Electronic Arts
It seems like before the Madden football video-game franchise, the only options were those little hand-held games with tiny red lights or the big metal board that vibrated plastic figures around. When it comes to sports gaming, Madden is how you do it right. Boom! No, wait, that's Tinactin.

1. George Foreman -- The Foreman Grill
Yeah, cooking gadgets -- particularly the Foreman Grill -- are technology and few have been as successful as King George.