It's time for Jessie J to look at what's happening to her career and it's time for Jessie J to take action.
Below you'll see part of an ad campaign currently running in Australia, where Jessie's a coach on The Voice. (Thanks to David for sending this over.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIc7eZApUe8
Australian media site Mumbrella reports:
The campaign sees Cadbury invite new The Voice judge/coach, Jessie J, to “share the joy”, bringing her on as a brand ambassador.
As part of the sponsorship, the pop singer will front Cadbury’s above-the-line campaign, becoming the face of TV ads and a ‘Snap Your Selfie’ promotion, asking fans to take a picture of themselves with their favourite Cadbury bar.
Carla Filia, Head of Marketing – Cadbury, Bars & Bitesize said: “As a brand, Cadbury Dairy Milk exists to ‘free the joy’ for all Australians. Our fans experience joy in discovering new Cadbury Dairy Milk flavours, just as they do in discovering new talent on The Voice Australia.
“Leveraging this strong insight, the creative territory of ‘The Joy of Discovery’ was born allowing us to create engaging content that is truly integrated into the show. We will be engaging our fans in ‘The Joy of Discovery’ over the next few weeks, delivering a fully integrated marketing campaign leveraging our sponsorship of The Voice Australia.”
Lizzie Young, Nine Entertainment Company Director of Content & Brand Integration, said: “Cadbury’s message is all about the joy of discovery, something we know only too well, making our partnership a perfect fit. The series captures some fantastic joyful moments and we’ve been delighted to have Cadbury on board to take that to another level. Stay tuned to The Voice Australia in the coming weeks so you don’t miss out on watching these moments unfold.”
Consumers will also be given the unique and exciting opportunity to win a meet-and-greet with the star through Woolworths.
The video above isn't the only one she's done for Cadbury. Here's one about Fruit & Nut. Here's a 'flavour battle'. Here's a 'flavour warm-up'. Here's one all about peppermint.
In total Cadbury have eight of these videos on YouTube.
Popjustice readers will already be well aware of Jessie's deal with Tuc biscuits. We talked about that here.
They will also, surely, be aware of Jessie J's McDonald's deal, also from this year, that saw her performing on an open-top bus as it drove through London.
Last month, Jessie also got involved in a campaign by Kellogg's Pop-Tarts, on a song with Rixton, apparently created for Pop-Tarts' Crazy Good Summer promotion.
https://soundcloud.com/officialpoptarts/sorry-to-interrupt
That's four snack campaigns in 2015 alone. We're only halfway through the year.
We understand the pressure that faces modern recording artists. We understand that everyone has to do endorsement deals. We understand that in a world that contains Rita Ora, Jessie J probably isn't top of the list like she might have been a few years ago. We understand all that. It's not as if our own website isn't festooned with adverts.
But Jessie J deserves better than this. Even if you don't like Jessie J — even if you think she's the worst artist of the 21st Century — you'd surely look at her achievements and her vocal talent and agree that she deserves better than this.
Who is making these decisions? Who is convincing Jessie J that any of this is good for her career?
We all know that Jessie is 'headstrong' but surely she can't be the one storming into boardrooms and shouting "I'm a multi-platinum recording artist who with the right A&R could have a long career ahead of herself! Get my face on multiple snack adverts NOW!" And even she is doing that, it's someone job to tell her it's bad for her career.
Whoever is facilitating all this, you can bet their own career operates independently of Jessie J's future success, and you can bet that they have eggs in other baskets. Have they set up an email autoreply that just says "YES" in massive red letters? Have they actually said no to anything in the last twelve months? Or is there more to come? The mind boggles.