Heineken signs Travolta for ad

Heineken, the Dutch brewer that hired Brad Pitt to star in a commercial during this month’s Super Bowl, has signed “Pulp Fiction” actor John Travolta to promote its namesake brew in a new ad as the company strives to spur U.S. sales growth.

The commercial will be a play on Travolta’s role as former gangster Chili Palmer in “Be Cool,” the sequel to the 1995 comedy “Get Shorty,” Heineken Chief Financial Officer Rene Hooft Graafland said. He declined to say how much the company, the world’s third-biggest brewer, will pay Travolta.

“Let’s just say he’ll get more than you and I earn in a year,” Hooft Graafland told a reporter at the beer-maker’s earnings press conference in Amsterdam, where the company is based. Graafland earned $838,676 in 2003, Heineken’s most recent annual report shows.