Marketing facts and stats

Celebrity endorsement

Seemingly more prone to misdemeanours than your average Joe, public personalities can be a mixed blessing. Strewn with stardust, they’ll gloss your brand with glamour, or shroud it in shame. Whether you’re aiming for A-list, or just a familiar face, here are some points to consider.

Celebrities sell out abroad

“This movie’s only playing in Spain, right?” blusters Sigourney Weaver, having seen a clip of her latest film cringingly “ruined by a mobile phone”, in the latest Orange cinema advert. It’s a notion that’s comforted many a sell-out celeb in real life as they sacrifice professional integrity for cash in hush-hush endorsement deals abroad, away from the eyes of their US fans. Armed with secrecy contracts, A-list celebs agree to star in foreign adverts, often cheesily out of line with their usual public image, to make some quick and easy bucks. Japan in particular favours the American celebrity endorsement route: Cameron Diaz has shilled for Aeon English Schools, Brad Pitt has touted Softbank Mobile and Sean Connery talks to an animated rabbit in an advert for a Japanese yoghurt brand, while rapper Snoop Dogg risked his street cred crooning a folk song for a Vybemovile advert in Germany. But unluckily for celebs, the internet means that nowadays no advert can be truly isolated to one country.

Do you know who I am?

Not even divas can dodge the taxman since the IRS (US Internal Revenue Service) introduced a levy on the extravagant goodie bags lavished upon celebs at awards ceremonies. Paparazzi favourites such as Paris Hilton have long been profiting from a steady flow of freebies doled out by marketers in the hope that their product will be seen with these trendsetters. Gwyneth Paltrow is reported to have expressed surprise at the opulent cruise ticket in her gift pack at the Golden Globe Awards, estimated to be worth $22,000 (£13,500). But could this custom be under threat? Recipients of award ceremony bounties must now sign to say they will declare such gifts as taxable income, since the IRS does not class them as gifts given “out of affection, respect or similar impulses”. An IRS spokesperson said “There’s no special red carpet tax loophole.”

Fact of the month

George Foreman’s endorsement of design company Salton’s previously unsuccessful kitchen grill sent the newly restyled “Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine” to world wide sales of $375m in one year.
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Choose somebody who personifies your brand’s attributes: try to match a personality to your mission statement, even if just a conference keynote speaker.

Choose a personality that your audience can empathise with: no brand ambassador is universally known, so use somebody with the correct profile.

Think beyond the flavour of the month: today’s desirable face may be tomorrow’s brand disaster.

Underestimate the ego: many celebrities measure their time – and salary – from the minute they leave their door to the minute they return.

Imply that your advocate uses your products if they don’t: consumers are not stupid.

Ignore your customers: ask who they like and why. Try to match your customer profile to a recognisable figure. And ask your employees if they’re happy to be associated with this person.

celebrity clangers

Gillette’s celebs have turned out to be a trio of “cheats” after Thierry Henry’s hand-ball in the France‑Ireland World Cup football match, and both Tiger Woods and David Beckham reportedly cheated on their wives.

When Ray Winstone of gangster film fame starred in Optivita adverts the celeb-brand mismatch was parodied by TV comedy Dead Ringers.

Sportsman Kobe Bryant’s family-friendly endorsement deals with Nutella and McDonald’s came to a quick end after he was accused of sexual assault.

Basketball player Magic Johnson’s adverts were controversially pulled after he contracted HIV, although the brands concerned claimed it was because he caught the disease committing adultery.

Churchill Car Insurance was forced to drop comic Vic Reeves as the voice of its bulldog after he was convicted of a drink driving offence

In 2004, the US “Got Milk?” campaign had to pull adverts featuring the Olsen twins, after Mary‑Kate sought treatment for what was reported to be an eating disorder.

Christian Dior dropped Sharon Stone from its advertising in China after she suggested the deadly earthquakes in Sichuan Province were karmic retribution for the Chinese government’s treatment of Tibet.

Ex-popstar Kerry Katona was dropped from Iceland’s “That’s why mums go to Iceland” campaign following allegations she’d taken cocaine.

A 1980s British Rail poster campaign for the Young Person’s railcard starring Gary Glitter became retrospectively inappropriate after his conviction for child abuse.

English actress Helena Bonham Carter ceased to be the face of cosmetics brand Yardley when she admitted she didn’t wear much make-up.