Understanding the Appeal of Celebrity Endorsement

Celebrity endorsement deals extend a celebrity’s brand and earn them money. They also draw attention to a company or product and increase sales. But what do these deals do for us?

Are you more of a Harry or a Niall?

We’ve discussed how we identify with certain celebrities: We make them role models. We think of them in terms of inspiration and aspiration. More specifically, we identify certain qualities in some celebrities that encourage us to think or behave in certain ways. Lady Gaga fans might be inspired to embrace their individuality and “let their freak flag fly”. We also identify certain qualities in some celebrities that encourage us to work towards achieving something. This can be something aesthetic: maybe you want to master Lana Del Ray’s makeup style or maybe you want to mimic the fashion style of the band fun. This aspiration can be something more significant: maybe you want to be able to play guitar like Keith Richards or the drums like Travis Barker, maybe you want to skateboard like Danny Way, or maybe you want to write a book like J.K. Rowling.

But we live in a consumer society – meaning we’re always encouraged to buy buy buy; consumption is understood as a means to satisfaction and happiness. We know this isn’t really true, but it’s what we’re told. And media coverage of celebrities seizes on this consumerism and our identification with celebrities and presents the lifestyle of the rich and famous “as a model of consumption practice and aspiration for the reader”. More specifically, these articles and advertisements emphasise both the celebrities’ spectacular lifestyle and their similarities to us so we both identify with celebrities and aspire to be like them. Celebrity-endorsed products are the most efficient means to get one step closer to both the celebrity and the celebrity lifestyle

Getting Closer to the Celebrity
Some social psychologists argue that we all want a piece of our idols. According to these studies, mass media and the Internet have brought celebrities and fans closer and closer over the years. We’ve talked about this: how we get a constant stream of information and have all different ways of communicating with celebrities today. The consequence of this is that old forms of collecting – news articles and press photos and autographs – aren’t enough anymore. We want something more intimate from our stars. If we can’t personally get an autograph or a photo, we can buy a piece of celebrity by buying a product they endorse or a product they had a hand in creating.

For example, Kate Moss created a collection for TopShop. According to marketing expert Claire Beale, fans will buy a skirt or a jacket from this collection because they believe in buying these items, they are getting a piece of Kate herself. She says, “Somewhere within the DNA of the Kate Moss collection is the spirit of Kate herself…Buy the denim hot pants, buy a piece of Kate.”





Or, if Kanye is more your inspiration, connect with him by wearing shoes he personally designed for Nike.


What products have you bought in order to own some celebrity DNA?