Towards an international understanding of the power of celebrity persuasions: a review and a research agenda

Abstract

Research into advertising using celebrity has been undertaken for nearly 40 years. It has principally used surveys and experiments to explore how consumers respond to celebrity advertisements. A recent meta-study of 32 papers has demonstrated that different populations respond in different ways to celebrity endorsements. Specifically, both US subjects and college students are more likely to respond in a significant way to the presence of celebrity than subjects who are not from the US, or who are not studying at college. Given that the nationality and student status of subjects matter, this article explores the make up of the samples that have been used to examine celebrity advertising. The article finds that these samples are not representative of US populations (because so many are students), nor of populations outside the US (because so few live beyond it). Furthermore, the history of dominance of US-based student samples, and the citation practices which keep them circulating in academia, suggests that theories of celebrity advertising have for a long time been excessively influenced by ideas tested on this unrepresentative group. This fact will limit the applicability of research into celebrity advertising to the wider world. I explore whether this matters, and how deficiencies might be addressed in further research.

Keywords:

• advertising
• marketing
• celebrity endorsements
• college students
• sample analysis

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this research was generously provided by the Economic and Social Research Council [RES 070-27-0035].

Notes on contributors

Dan Brockington

Dan Brockington is a Professor of Conservation and Development at the University of Manchester. Trained as an anthropologist in London, he has worked previously in the geography departments of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. His research has covered the social impacts of conservation policy, the relationships between capitalism and conservation, the work of media and celebrity in development, and long-term livelihood change in East Africa. He has conducted most of his research in Tanzania but has also worked in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and India, as well as conducting global overviews of the social impacts of protected areas, media and conservation and continental wide examinations of the work of conservation NGOs in sub-Saharan Africa. Dan is happiest conducting long-term field research in remote areas but also learns much from studying plush fundraising events. He has recently published Celebrity Advocacy and International Development (2014) and has also written Celebrity and the Environment (2009), Nature Unbound (2008) (with Rosaleen Duffy and Jim Igoe) and Fortress Conservation (2002), and co-edited (with Rosaleen Duffy) Capitalism and Conservation (2011).