Celebrity Endorsements Of Products

Many people  are familiar with the ubiquitous Wheaties box with its rotating pictures of star athletes or the titillating ads featuring nothing coming between a pubescent Brooke  Shields  and  her  Calvins.  Using  celebrity  images  to  market products has become a heavily used, stealthily  applied  concept to win over consumers, to change and solidify beauty  norms, and ultimately to create  and form a market for all types of goods  and products. In the 19th  century, celebrity  status may have existed in the form of Queen Victoria  selling purity  and imperial might  on a bar of soap—by  the postwar period, however, celebrities had  taken  on a different significance, a different  character and,  indeed, a different social  and  economic class. The  power  of a celebrity  endorsement of a product is both implicit  and explicit—the assumption is that  the celebrity  is one the public  admires and aspires  to be and uses the product he is selling. Thus, to be like Mike,  that  is, like basketball legend  Michael Jordan, the message is often that the actual use, consumption, or ownership of the product can  bring  one  a little  closer  to his celebrity. In the  beauty  industry, celebrity  endorsements take things one step further by having  celebrities presumably use and testify to the efficacy of a product. They are stars, they are beautiful, in part because of the  products they use. The  consumer then has the  possibility of achieving that same beauty  by purchasing and following  the regime  of her favorite celebrity.

Makeup

Makeup companies and  artists  have  had  long-standing relationships with  actresses  because they  may work  together on  a project. Max  Factor, a pioneer in movie makeup, used  his relationships with such  stars  as Jean Harlow, Clara Bow, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Claudia Colbert, and  Judy Garland to sell his line of cosmetics. Max  Factor  was one  of the  first to  use  his  connections with  movie studios and  with studio starlets to sell his products. He even appeared in cameos in the  films—bringing a new type of beauty  reality to beautiful fiction.  Not  only was he a pioneer in advertising campaigns and  in the  popularizing of celebrity products for the common consumer, but Max Factor  also understood the fairytale associations between what people  saw on the screen, on the pages, in the glossies, and what women hoped to appear  to be.

Other companies such  as Maybelline (Kristin  Davis,  Zhang Ziyi, Jessica Alba, and  Christy  Turlington), CoverGirl (Rihanna, Drew  Barrymore, Ellen Degeneres, and  Queen Latifah),  and  L’Oréal (Beyoncé  Knowles,  Andie  McDowell, and  Diane Keaton)  have followed suit. Even higher-end makeup companies, such  as Kinerase (Courtney Cox Arquette), Estée Lauder (Elizabeth Hurley and Gwyneth Paltrow), Elizabeth Arden   (Catherine Zeta-Jones), Coco   Chanel (Nicole   Kidman and Keira Knightly),  Christian Dior  (Charlize  Theron), and  SKII (Cate Blanchett) use celebrity  images  and  endorsements. Celebrities are not  only endorsing products, they are making their  own—Britney Spears,  Jennifer  Lopez,  Mariah Carey, Gwen Stefani,  Iman,  Cindy  Crawford, David  and  Victoria  Beckham, Victoria  Jackson all have  their  names on  perfumes, cosmetics, or skin  care  lines.  The  message  is simple—one can be beautiful if one uses the same products as these  celebrities.

Hair Care

The  hair care industry also understood the power  of the celebrity  endorsement in the name  brand familiarity  and the marketing of styling products and shampoos. In the mid 1980s, actress  Kelly LeBrock  made the slogan “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful” famous for Pantene. Her  shiny,  smooth, and  fabulously coiffed  locks were the envy of many  women—and they were available to all, with the purchase of a bottle  of Pantene. Maria  Menounos, an entertainment journalist who began her  career  on Entertainment Tonight, is Pantene’s latest  spokeswoman—making a celebrity  of someone whose  job  is to  talk  to  celebrities. L’Oréal  (Andie  MacDowell  and  Eva Longoria) and  Garnier Nutrisse (Sarah  Jessica Parker  and  Katie Holmes) have featured actresses who use their  hair color products. Most  recently, David Babaii created a line of eco and animal-friendly hair products with actress Kate Hudson. The  tag line  for his  products? “Tested on  Kate, not  on  animals.” There are also examples of celebrity-endorsed and  celebrity-developed products. Both Jessica Simpson and Paris Hilton have their  own lines of hair extensions.

Supermodels and Actresses

The  rise of the supermodel—among the greats,  Cindy  Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, and Kate Moss—in the 1980s and 1990s brought a different kind of celebrity  endorsement to the  beauty  industry. While  models had  certainly been the faces for advertisements of the beauty  industry since its inception, by the 1980s, supermodels were no  longer  nameless, beautiful faces. The  women brought their own style, sensibility, and name  recognition to the products and the brand name.

By the 1990s,  however, supermodels gave way to actress-turned-models. Beauty magazines like Vogue, Elle, Vanity Fair, and Women’s Wear Daily began  to feature actresses as well as models on their covers. Perhaps in reaction to the two-dimensional characters that  models often portrayed, actresses now talked  about lifestyles, incorporating their professional careers with their roles as mothers, wives, and as women. Rather  than presenting a perfect  image to emulate, celebrities spoke  candidly about their  own flaws and  weaknesses. There may be no greater  example  than ProActiv, a skin  care  and  acne  line  that  has  received  endorsements from  Jessica Simpson, Sean P. Diddy  Combs, Vanessa L. Williams,  Britney Spears, Alyssa Milano, Julianne Hough, Jennifer  Love Hewitt, and Serena  Williams—to name  some. These celebrities talked  about their  insecurities, their  beauty  problems, and  their  final remedy through the  product. Their skin  flaws were  the  consumer’s skin  flaws and  their solution could  be the consumer’s solution.

Related  to beauty  products are exercise  regimens, fitness  equipment, and meal plans.  Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer  Aniston, Madonna, and  Courtney Cox  helped make  Pilates,  yoga, and  budokon popular. These may  not  have  been  official endorsements, but  as actresses talked  about their  own  nutrition and  exercise  routines,  women used  their  testimonials to  explore  new  forms  of exercise.  Chuck Norris and Christie Brinkley are both paid spokespeople for the Total  Gym. They host  an infomercial and claim to be users  themselves. Whoopi Goldberg was both a client  and  spokesperson for  LA Weight Loss;  Kirstie  Alley, Valerie  Bertinelli, and Queen Latifah  joined  and lost weight with Jenny Craig; and Jenny McCarthy became an official spokeswoman for Weight Watchers in 2006.

Recent Trends

The fashion industry, which has long exploited its relationships with starlets (think Audrey  Hepburn and  Givenchy), now  hires  stylists  and  public  relations firms  to entice  celebrities to wear the  newest  couture from  their  newest  lines. Whereas it had  frequently been  the  practice of the  past  to have  wardrobe designers make and  select gowns  for the stars  of their  films for awards  shows  such  as the Oscars, celebrities are now being  sent  designer dresses  from established and  new fashion houses alike. With the plethora of awards shows, television appearances, and print photographs, newer  designers have gained  recognition through the  celebrity  endorsement of having  their  gowns  worn  by A-list actresses. Elie Saab, for example, became one  of the  most  sought-after designers when  Halle  Berry wore his gown when  she became the first African American woman to win the Oscar  in the best actress  category  for her  work in Monster’s Ball (2002). Eva Longoria used  the  opportunity of hosting the  ALMA  Awards  to  feature Latino designers like Angel Sanchez. Most  recently, when  Michelle Obama appeared on  The View in a $148 White  House/Black Market sheath, the dress  virtually sold out  overnight. This  is proof  positive  that  celebrity  endorsement, whether intentional or not, is a powerful marketing tool.


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

0 responses to “Celebrity Endorsements Of Products”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *