February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
You get the idea. But never, not even if Bono got down on his dimpled knees and begged, would we consider cavorting bare-arsed across a TV screen to help them shift some albums.
OK, with pals like Christie Turlington, Helena Christiansen and Naomi Campbell forming their superstar posse, U2 is unlikely to ask us to expose our, er, devotion in such a public manner. But up-and-coming Northern band Ash figures that any coverage — or uncoverage — is good. To that end, they have recruited one of their most devoted fans, Belfast actor James Nesbitt, to help them get to the bottom, as it were, of this publicity thing.
Nesbitt, who has starred in TV’s “Ballykissangel” (as Assumpta’s hapless husband) as well as “Waking Ned Devine,” and, most recently, “Bloody Sunday,” bares his soul, and almost everything else, for Ash in an ad campaign for their greatest hits album. In the TV spots, seen in Ireland and the UK, Nesbitt dances around his apartment naked as the album plays in the background. Though there are many shots of Nesbitt’s bum on display, the actor came up with a clever way to avoid flashing the, er, full monty between takes.
“He was a great sport,” said an Ash spokesperson. “He held an Ash album over his nether regions to protect his modesty.” Which strikes us as both a great branding opportunity, and an endorsement for the endangered 12-inch vinyl album.