All the major record companies are starting divisions whose job is to strike advertising and sponsorship deals for their artists. This may seem new. It's not. Here's 15 striking examples of the use of music stars as pitchmen through the ages. (Thanks to Colonel Pleasure.)

15. Opera singer says "Camels agree with my throat".
In 1952 Marguerite Piazza, the youngest and most photogenic singer with the Metropolitan Opera, said that if you wanted to smoke like a docker and still hit the high notes, Camels were the only way to fly. She's since undergone a number of treatments for cancer.

14. Dinah Shore sells Chevvy
In 1956 gas was cheap, teeth were gleaming and the road was open. Hence America's sweetheart of the interstate Shore would finish her weekly TV show with a quick burst of "see the USA in your Chevrolet".

13. Hank Thompson is most interesting on the subject of beer.
This singing cowboy has all the time in the world to explain exactly how Falstaff beer is made and what its manufacture has in common with the sound of a chord on his guitar. Has any man ever chosen a beer on the basis of how it was made?

12. Gene Autry recommends bread. Youth of America obey.
"So we got this kid in his garden, OK, and he lassoos the loaf of Sunbeam bread out of the kitchen window, OK, and then, you'll love this, he goes back indoors and kinda smooches with the bread. Think the client will go for it?"

11. The Rolling Stones wake up every morning with a crackle.
In 1964, inbetween recording blues covers at Chess studios in Chicago and urinating on garage walls, Jagger and Richards were somehow persuaded to use their emerging sound, Thames delta intonation included, to hymn the virtues of a breakfast cereal. "Pour on the milk and listen to the crackle of that rice," Jagger sings. Still better than their next record, though.

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