Watch the Gillette advert

You would think they each had enough money not to bother, or perhaps it was simply the lure of free razors for life that made them do it. We will never know whether Tiger Woods (a £100million fortune and counting), Thierry Henry (worth £25million) and Roger Federer (career earnings about £30million) cringe each time their advert for Gillette appears on television but, if they needed confirmation, their jaunty appearance for the shaving giant has been voted advertising's Top Turkey of 2008.

They have put themselves up there among the legends whose advertising careers have amounted to sporting own goals. Think Kevin Keegan and Henry Cooper promoting the aftershave that ruined a million dates, as they joshed with each other in the changing-room after a workout.

“Nothing beats the great smell of Brut,” they chorused, flicking each other with towels in an act of jocularity that could easily be misconstrued these days. Still, the 1980s was a more innocent age. Cooper is still a national treasure and that was one job Keegan managed to hold on to.

At least Henry has the excuse of an expensive divorce, facing an £8million settlement with Claire Merry, his English wife. And he already has some experience of selling things on the TV with his adverts for the Renault Clio giving birth to the “va-va-voom” catchphrase so beloved of fans at Highbury when he played for Arsenal.

This time, though, Henry's va-va-voom spluttered into an advert, alongside the world's top golfer and one of the best tennis players of all time, that has won them nothing but derision throughout the advertising industry.

“The Gillette ad is an own goal, a double fault and a bunker shot rolled into one,” according to Claire Beale, editor of Campaign magazine, which ran the awards. “To secure three of the world's most famous sports stars would have cost Gillette millions, but is such a wasted opportunity as the creative lacks any charm or wit. We see thousands of TV ads created for a British audience each year and this one stands out as the worst.”

Oh dear, and it is not as though these chaps came cheap, with Gillette thought to be shelling out about £3million a year to each of them. They should know that good taste is all. Poignantly, the unfortunate, though tonsorially perfect, trio should perhaps have taken note of the advert that came second to their turkey. It was for Specsavers and featured Édith Piaf singing her best-known song: “Non, je ne regrette rien.” Too late for regrets now, boys.

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