NEW YORK - There's so much more to Bob Geldof than meets the eye. Besides being a distinguished knight and a rock-and-roll star, the pop icon* also founded travel commerce site Deckchair.com. But yesterday, Geldof said he's selling the money-losing baby to competitor World Travel Holdings for about $4.55 million, or £3.18 million.
As part of the deal, Geldof will remain a board member for a measly annual salary of $143,000 (or £100,000 yearly) until 2003. During that time, Geldof will be "marketing the group's businesses." Essentially, Geldof is the celebrity slave stuck promoting the bejesus out of an Internet company that simply cannot be as novel or interesting as it was to him two years ago.
"We don't want someone like [Geldof] to manage the business," says World Travel Holdings Chief Executive Jonathan Biles. "We want him to turn up when we need him to front the company. Yesterday, he did seven television appearances for us."
Geldof claims he started Deckchair.com because he was discontent with the current flight-booking system. "Irritation is usually the spur for me to do something...that's why I created Deckchair.com."
It's an interesting story. It's also totally preposterous. Geldof is probably irritated by mosquito bites, too, but that doesn't mean he should rush out and start a company that develops insect repellant. Any member of the entertainment industry who attached himself to a Web company most likely did so out of sheer fear that the Internet would leave him behind.
Not so, says Biles. "He cares about the business, and he wants something bloody different. He wants to make e-commerce more fun and entertaining."
Hard to believe a commerce site really needs a pop star to do that.
Geldof wasn't the only one that got caught in the Internet allure. British rocker, David Bowie, started an online community and rolled out his own Internet service, BowieNet. Melanie Griffith, known more as a buxom blonde than a shrewd businesswoman, started her own venture capital firm. Two years ago, most any business plan with the word "Internet" in it seemed a reasonable proposition for celebrities.
"It was a whole different mindset in 1999," says Steven Addis, president and CEO of Berkeley, Calif., brand consulting firm Addis. "It was hip and there was a lot of money to be made."
There's not much reason for entertainment figures to be meddling on the Internet now. No matter what World Travel Holdings is paying for Geldof's backing, it's probably too much. Having a celebrity name behind an Internet company means absolutely nothing--especially for a service so irrelevant to Geldof's stardom. It would be one thing if World Travel scored a deal with a famous adventurer, but keeping Geldof around to promote this site is a little like enlisting Shaquille O'Neal to market Barbie dolls. Sure, Shaquille's a good ballplayer, but how much do little girls like him?
"Even last year it was so cheap to get celebrity endorsements," Addis says. "Celebrities were paid with options, and there were a lot of options floating around. There's nothing wrong per se, with celebrity endorsements, but there needs to be a relevant connection."
According to Addis, among the most irrelevant celebrity endorsements was WebEx.com (nasdaq: WEBX - news - people), a Web communications infrastructure company, which selected drag queen Ru Paul as the company mascot. Also, Priceline.com (nasdaq: PCLN - news - people): The name-your-own-price commerce site used aging ex-Star Trek captain William Shatner to wax poetic in television commercials.
"Priceline probably did a lot more for Shatner's career than Shatner did for Priceline," Addis says.
Unlike Shatner, Geldof's celebrity isn't likely to be improved by Deckchair.com; nor is World Travel likely to improve business with his backing, even if the company says it will move its profitability date up six months. At best, Geldof will use Deckchair.com to book a vacation or two to get away from all the pressures of business on the Web.
This article can be found at http://www.forbes.com/ecommerce/2001/03/27/0327celebs.html online.