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The Danger Of Celebrity Endorsement

Written by: Charles Bows

Article Overview: Is the endorsement of your product by a showbiz or sports star really worth it?

The Danger Of Celebrity Endorsement

There’s the old adage that in order to stay at the top, you’ve got to have deep pockets. And that you should employ a celebrity to endorse your products. To a certain degree, I would support that theory.

Apart from the ballooning cost and questionable value of emotionally branding a shaving system or can of carbonated fruit drink with a showbiz figure, the obvious and almost inevitable downside risks have been recently exposed.

Since the reasons behind having a celebrity endorse your products, is to present to the target audience an image that appeals to the people being targeted. There is no doubt that celebrity endorsement really can work for your Company.

However, the real problem come when the celebrities don’t always do what there supposed to do!

For example when Michael Jackson was promoting a well know Cola to worldwide audience, few people would have thought that he’d have been accused of child molesting. You can imagine just how quickly the Cola Company in question backed out of any agreement they had with Jackson.

Or, indeed “David Beckham”, who is at present all over commercial television here in the UK. If he’s not advertising Pepsi, he’s advertising Gillette. The problem with David is that he’s alleged to have had several affairs, whilst his wife “Victoria (Posh Spice) Adams” has been left at home minding the kids.

Now it doesn’t appear to have affected his earning potential at present, however, in my opinion it’s only a matter of time before somebody starts asking "does it represent the type of image we want to have associated with our product!"

For example Gary Linaker (a top rate British footballer) who had never even been booked, let alone sent-off, was chosen to be the new face (celebrity) behind the Walkers brand of crisps (potato chips) in the UK.

A series of adverts started airing back in the late 90’s, featuring Gary returning home to his beloved Leicester (a town in the Midlands). He was seen signing autograph’s for his adoring fans before coming across one young person who doesn’t know who he is. This young fan is eating a packet of Walkers crisp. Gary then grabs the packet of crisps of him and start’s to eat the entire packet!

Anyway, I’m sure you get the gist of the advert; a whole series of adverts has now been produced all featuring Gary Linaker as the main link man. The point is that the advertising agency could be certain that Gary Linaker would never be caught eat a rival manufactures products; there’s just no way that he would be caught eating Golden Wonder or Pringles.

Another example of sports star marketing that worked well was (and is perhaps slightly closer to home for most readers of this web-site) Michael Jordan. *He represented everything that was good about the American people. He has an appealing, unassuming personality which goes along with his amazing talents as a basketball player. In its first full year with Jordan acting as its representative, Nike sold approximately $110 million worth of “Air Jordan” basketball shoes and other apparel. Clearly a major marketing success story!

So, “you pay’s your money, and takes your choice”. But I think its important to ask yourself is celebrity endorsement for me?

Reference: * Principles of Marketing – Kotler/Armstrong

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Article Tags: celebrity endorsement, cola company, commercial television, david beckham, deep pockets, downside risks, earning potential, footballer, fruit drink, no doubt, old adage, potato chips, questionable value, returning home, shaving system, target audience, victoria posh spice, victoria posh spice adams, wife victoria, worldwide audience



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