A tricky area, this, endorsements seem to fall into three categories:

1. artists who genuinely use and approve of a product

2. artists whose agents give their names or music to anything that moves, without their knowledge

3. dead artists, who really don't have much of a say in the matter.

The first category is entirely free from criticism here - Kevin Keegan put much of his success way from the football pitch down to Brut aftershave, Ian 'Beefy' Botham's enormous bulk would no doubt be crippling were it not for his vibrating foot pad (available now from Argos, Boots, Robert Dyas and all good car boot sales), John Lydon gets through a lot of butter, Pete Crouch owes his gambling habit to Bet365 and Michael Parkinson keeps losing ballpoint pens.

The second category results in rather more fun - The Beatles promoting ice-creams, Stevie Wonder promoting video games, Tom Jones promoting Grecian 2000, Carlos Santana promoting women's shoes (hang on, you mean he REALLY IS a shoe designer?).

Post-death endorsements can create some excellent ads (the Griff Rhys-Jones Holstein ads are always worth a revisit) although I do wonder whether Alan Titchmarsh and Debbie McGee have already filmed, "don't say I didn't warn you" follow-ups to their life assurance/cost of funerals ads.

Kiss probably deserve a 'Cod History' of their own - Kiss coffins are by no means the most bizarre bits of merchandise bearing the band's name, although they are the ones best suited to the phrase, "over my dead body".

editor's note: some or all of this might not be true