Claim: Benjamin
Curtis' career as a pitchman for Dell computers ended because he was arrested for possession of marijuana.
Status: False.
Origins: This has yet to evolve into the hot rumor of the moment, but thanks to the experience gleaned from years of backtracking how gossip begins, we can see it coming. The confluence of two related but distinctly different events is so often afterwards mistakenly remembered as a case of one event's having caused the other that it's a given we'll soon be hearing the claim that Dell Computer Corporation dropped its energetic teenage blonde pitchman because his arrest for marijuana possession made him an embarrassment to his employers.
Actor Benjamin Curtis, who played the wise-cracking "Steven" in the more than a dozen "Dude, you're getting a Dell" commercials, was arrested for marijuana possession on 9 February 2003. Because this was a first offense involving a small amount of marijuana, the actor won't be seeing the inside of a jail cell -- the charges against him will be dismissed, and he'll avoid a criminal record if he stays out of trouble for the next year.
As far as Dell commercials go, we're going to see a lot less of "Steven" in the coming years, but not because the computer maker dropped him as a corporate embarrassment due to his drug bust. The "Dell Dude" character was already on the way out in favor of a new less "dude-centric" ad campaign at the time of the Curtis dust-up, and at least two of those newer ads had already been widely aired. The new series of Dell spots features interns oohing over how the company fills customer orders, with one of those spots aimed at smoothing the transition from "Dell Dude" to "Wide-Eyed Interns" themes by following the youngsters through the order completion process, then shifting to "Steven" and his presumed younger brother receiving the unit the interns had overseen on the shipping floor.
Although Dell had done well with its advertising centered on the "Steven" character, the campaign had been underway for three years and was getting stale. Moreover, there was a real chance the product was becoming overshadowed by the pitchman as the "Dell Dude" became more of a cultural icon as time went by. Dell deemed it time for a change, hence the shift to the interns. And the changes all took place before things went to pot, as it were.
Barbara "the Dell Dude's arrest ends speculation that marijuana was a gateway drug" Mikkelson
Last updated: 16 February 2003
