I don't know, he's not playing himself here, he's playing a circus magician. Which...I don't think that's a thing, right? Most circuses don't have dedicated magicians? Maybe they have a clown that does magic on top of normal clowning? But that's what he appears to be, based on what he's wearing and the move he makes at the end when he magically vanishes.
Two things about this - beyond the very idea that somebody spent money to film a coffee commercial starring Paul Stanley that takes place in a circus and was like "Yep, this will do it, this will sell basically all the coffee to all the people" - interest me in relation to its place in KISStory. First, I can definitely hear the germ of Paul's later, triumphant comeback single "LIVE TO WIN!" in this jingle. Second, this appears to have been filmed in 2000, not long after KISS released Psycho Circus, notable for being their 18th but best (per Paul and Gene at the time) album and the first studio album with all two original members Paul and Gene and their employees Ace and Peter since 1979. Now, yes, two years later isn't really "not long after", but this is KISS, the biggest band that will ever be, so people were still super into Psycho Circus two years later, and you have to think that's why an exchange happened that we can presume went down like this:
Executive 1: "Hey, you know who we should put in our major coffee ad campaign?"
Executive 2: "Paul Stanley of KISS?"
Executive 1: "Exactly. And you know what the commer-"
Executive 2: "It should be set in a circus, to remind people of their huge comeback album, Psycho Circus."
Executive 1: "Well, yes, I was going to say it should be set in a circus, but I don't think of it as a comeback album. I mean, come back from what? KISS has never gone away. They will
never go away. The music and excitement of KISS will last forever."
Executive 2: "Oh, sure, I didn't mean-"
Executive 1: "And people don't need to be
reminded of Psycho Circus. I doubt most people have even taken it off their record players for more than an hour since it came out two years ago."
Anyway, what if this had been the first of four Folgers ads starring KISS? Or what if this had been an excerpt from a PSYCHO CIRCUS movie? What parts would the rest of KISS had played? I figure Gene is a lock as the evil, jealous ring master who wants to possess the trapeze artist. Paul is the benevolent circus magician who wants to see the trapeze artist and her young love be happy and helps them escape from the circus. Peter plays the mute they hire to clean up the lion cage and Gene orders the lions to kill eat him during the second act.
Ace does nothing.
