Associations With Celebrities And Authorities

By Author: Jordon
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In this section, we examine the promises implied by the associations created in ads and the sources on which ads draw to build associations.

Use It. Be Like Me. When celebrities appear in commercials, they are often there to testify to the worth of a product. Sometimes they function as pseudo-authorities. What qualifies Ed McMahon as an expert on mayonnaise, motorcycles, or sunglasses? At best, celebrities speaking outside their field of achievement give testimony about their ordinary experience, experience no more Cartier Replica authoritative than yours and mine, about how coffee tastes or how well a detergent works. Often, the celebrity not only tells us why he or she uses the product but also hints that if we want to be like him or her, we ought to use this product.

Actors also attempt to transfer the trust we have in their characters to the products they endorse. John Houseman, who played a curmudgeonly law professor in the series Paper Chase, carried that role with him in his endorsement of a brokerage firm that makes its "money ...
... the old-fashioned way. They earn it." After pleading guilty to 2000 counts of wire and mail fraud, another brokerage firm, E. F. Hutton, hired Bill Cosby, the star of NBC's top-rated show of the 1985-- 86 season, to appear in ads designed to mend its image.

In 1995, Candice Bergen of Murphy Brown fame touted the value of the long-distance telephone company Sprint; Janine Turner, who played Maggie on Northern Exposure, spoke for Chevrolet; and Jerry Seinfeld, star of Seinfeld, promoted American Express.

Not all of the associations created by celebrity endorsements are problem-free, however. Monica Lewinsky's weight was the focus of commentary and a great deal of cruel humor in the year-long period in which the Clinton-Lewinsky relationship was the subject of national and finally congressional scrutiny. After seven months of denying an inappropriate relationship with the young White House aide, Clinton admitted that one had existed. In the aftermath of the scandal, Jenny Craig, a weight-loss company, engaged Lewinsky's services as a spokesperson. In televised ads that noted that she had lost more than thirty pounds on the Jenny Craig regimen, Lewinsky spoke for the product. Some Jenny Craig franchises refused to pay for the ads. "As a person who has been successful on our program, she'd done great," said a franchise owner. "But, as a person to look up to, there are certainly some issues there ... I wouldn't be pleased if my daughter came home and said 'I want to be just like Monica Lewinsky.'"

Use It. I'm an Authority. Advertisers associate their products with persons we are likely to trust. We are culturally conditioned to trust older white males, for example, and this cultural predisposition is reinforced by the leadership positions held by older white males in government and in the major religions. Consequently, it is Cartier Replica Watches not surprising that older white males appear more often as authority figures in ads than older women. We are also conditioned to respect the advice and information provided by certain types of professionals, such as doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, who are also common figures in ads.