Entertainment

Snoop Dogg's Campaign Down Under

By Judy Faber

July 5, 2007 / 6:34 PM EDT / CBS

Is Snoop Dogg planning to trade in his gin and juice for a big can of Foster's?

The 35-year-old actor and rapper appears in a series of tongue-in-cheek ads for MTV Australia, telling fans that he's upset he was denied a visa to enter the country in April so he's started a petition to get citizenship there.

Much of the promotional campaign was actually shot weeks before Snoop got into trouble with authorities.

"Close to six months ago we came up with the very ambitious concept of claiming Snoop Dogg was moving down-under with the help of MTV Australia — this included shooting a load of footage in late February 2007," Dave Sibley, Managing Director of MTV Networks Australia and New Zealand tells The ShowBuzz via email.

One of the ads shows Snoop purchasing a home in an exclusive neighborhood in Sydney, saying "get the girls ready … and put on the barbecue." Australian pop star Sophie Monk appears as his "real Aussie girlfriend."

"Then, two things happened that took us by surprise: At the end of the filming, Snoop actually started asking genuine questions about property. He started talking to us about moving here even after the cameras were switched off," said Sibley. "(Second), we had invited Snoop to come back to take part in the 2007 MTV Australian video music awards and much to our surprise he wasn't granted re-entry into Australia."

Photos: Celebrity Mug Shots

Australian authorities canceled Snoop's visa after he entered a plea of no contest to gun and drug charges in the U.S.

2"He doesn't seem the sort of bloke we want in this country," Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews told Sydney's Macquarie Radio at the time.

That turn of events just added another layer to the ad campaign, in which Snoop — supposedly speaking from his home in Los Angeles — says "They gotta let me in. I already put a down payment on my house down there."

"If anything, we think this has strengthened Snoop's resolve to spend more time in Australia," said Sibley. "Our 'Vote for Snoop to Get Citizenship' campaign is really a response to the thousands of fans who have expressed their disappointment. We wanted to find a way of giving them a voice."

In addition to airing on the network, videos from the ad campaign appear on the MTV Australia Web site and on a special MySpace page.