Celebrities are in a majority of TV commercials and ads. Many people think that celebrities can sell the product by just being associated with the company. In some cases this is true. When people see a celebrity associated with the endorsement they think that since a celebrity is using the product, they need to also. People think that they will be just like the celebrities in the ad. We also think that since this celebrity is using the product, the product must be reliable. Celebrities also make the company name known. Some people remember the product because their favorite celebrity was in the ad.
While some people think celebrities will sell the product by just being associated with it, others disagree. Celebrities can also be harmful in advertising. If a celebrity gets a bad rep with the public, this can be detrimental to the company. Tiger Woods for example is the face of the sporting good company Nike. When Tiger was in the media for all the negative things that were going on, people looked at nike differently. I know my father wouldn't buy Nike for some time because he didn't like Tiger. Michael Vick also signed with a company called Unequal Technologies. When he was arrested for having dog fights, the company was worried about having him as the face of their company. Most company feel as though just having a celebrity being the face of the company will help their marketing. Sometimes they forget about the rest of the commercial or ad and it doesn't attract many people. Some people don't typically like a celebrity that the company uses. If half of the people watching an ad don't like the celebrity, naturally they will change the channel thus the company loosing half of its potential customers. There was a recent study done comparing celebrity commercials to others without celebrities. The results showed that those ads that did not involve celebrities rated higher than those with celebrities.
I think that a company should use celebrities in their advertisements. I understand that if there is a negative impact with the celebrity in the media, this can harm the company. However, I feel as though people will remember the companies advertisement if there is a celebrity associated with it. I was watching TV and an Amica commercial came on. I was thinking about how there was no way I was going to remember this company because the commercial just involved "regular" people talking about the service. Commercials such as the Progressive insurance with the annoying spokeswoman are commercials you will remember. If you can remember the commercial you'll remember the company more.
Do you think companies should think twice before signing an endorsement deal with celebrities?
I responded to this on my blog.
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