I’m not a fan of freecreditreport.com as a service, but those commericals that are all over the place on TV are mildly amusing. But who are those guys? Are they really singing and playing their instruments? I decided to investigate.
After coming up with the concept for the commercials, ad agency The Martin Agency issued a casting call in Montreal, Quebec. The Martin Agency is the advertising mastermind behind the Geico gecko and cavemen. The commercials were directed by the comedy mastermind behind “Dude, Where’s My Car?” and “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle”.
MSNBC actually went out and intereviewed French Canadian actor Eric Violette, who is the lead singer and main character in all the commercials. A link to his website is here. According to the MSNBC article, the actor speaks with a dreamy French accent, which makes dubbing his voice in an American accent necessary. However, he is an accomplished musician, so he doesn’t need to fake playing the guitar.
Other fun facts about Monsieur Violette:
- Unlike the guy he portrays in the commercials, Eric has good credit, though he says that Canadians aren’t so heavily judged by credit as people in the US.
- He is single (now you know, women of the world!)
- He was born in 1981
- He is in the process of putting together his new band, God Against God.
Vince Charron is the long-haired blonde bass player stuck in the front seat of the Rollercoaster. In real life, Vince is a Quebecois professional musician operating out of Montreal. I can’t seem to find out much more about him. Vince, phone home!
Mario Telaro is the drummer and also lives in Montreal, Quebec. Per his MySpace page, “I study Philosophy at Concordia University, Montreal, Qubec. I have two bands – Engines of Peace, White Hounds, I’ve recently been playing with Tone Signal and yes, I’m the drummer from freecreditreport.com.”
The musicians are not widely recognized in Montreal, or other parts of Canada, due to the fact that the commercials are only seen in the U.S. The commercials have inspired a large number of parodies at YouTube, to the delight of The Martin Agency.
If you have any other information about the “FreeCreditReport” band members, tell us by leaving a comment!
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Now days when people losing jobs and other factors. Can any one will succesfully repair their credit? or the companies investigate more now days?
THANK YOU Kristy Welsh, for all your investigative reportings…(SWEET !!)..just one question though…why doesn’t Mario ever speak in the “Free Credit Report” video’s ???, I’ve heard Vince, and of course Eric but never mario, why is that??
Rick,
Actually, you’ve never heard any of the actors speak in the FreeCreditReport.com commercials. All of the music is pre-recorded before the ads are shot, and Dave Muhlenfeld provides the vocals. Eric is merely lip-syncing because of his French accent.
Mario’s first language is English; he also speaks French and has a basic grasp of Italian.
HERE’S WHY FREECREDITREPORT DUMPED THE BAND:
According to the blog post below, Freecreditreport went up into Canada and paid off the production crew and actors’ agents to avoid having to pay “The Band” union scale or residuals. As a result, the three young men who made Freecreditreport millions of dollars were paid only a couple hundred per spot. When Eric Violette’s popularity soared and he began doing interviews, Freecreditreport watched nervously as reporters questioned him on his “newfound wealth”. Worried that he would expose the duplicity of the commercials’ production, they pulled the plug on the campaign.
Please copy the link and spread the word:
http://charlottechevalier.sosblog.com/
Great article! Thanks for the info.