‘The Hoff has eclipsed David Hasselhoff’ admits actor
David Hasselhoff at Cannes Lions this morning
Baywatch and Knightrider actor David Hasselhoff has credited Sydney’s Daily Telegraph with helping revive his career by making him aware of the “Hoff” phenomenon a decade ago.
During the first seminar of the 2014 Cannes Lions with agency Golin looking at relevance, Hasslehoff admitted “the Hoff has put David Hasselhoff out of work”.
Talking about how he first became aware of the nickname, he said he was contacted by the Daily Telegraph about a decade ago about a story on a series of emails which had gone viral with lines such as “Desperate Hoffwives” and “born in a Hoffpital”.
He said: “So, I went to Australia and went on TV and they were putting these lines to me, so I decided the way to attack humour is to come back with humour and I said ‘Don’t Hassle the Hoff’.
“Now The Hoff has eclipsed David Hasselhoff, so I just go with it.”
During a colourful presentation Hasselhoff’s influence was analysed by agency Golin against other famous figures from the 1980s, and contemporary celebrities, which found he rated well in the “classic” category in all markets, but was most popular in Germany, where he has had success as a singer.
One trend which appeared was his popularity among younger demographics, something he put down to the fact they “see me as a person who goes for it”.
“The kids go for it and are following through, the kids are smart. They think that maybe because I’ve lasted so long is because I’m smart.”
He added: “The best thing that happened to me was Twitter and Google. Google+ on April Fools Day put out a campaign called #hoffsome. Every time someone tagged that a they would get back a photo of themselves with me. I was worried it would not go well, it did 30 million photos.
“I realised everybody wants to have fun, smile and be happy and that’ what the internet’s about.”
Alex Hayes in Cannes
