Breaking through the Clutter in Media Environment: How Do Celebrities Help?

Advertisers need to communicate their company's promotional messages to the target market. However, the advertising environment is highly cluttered. One popular strategy of creatively breaking through the clutter is by using celebrities as brand endorsers in advertisement. Advertisers believe that the celebrity's qualities might transfer to their brand, thus produce favorable campaign result. Celebrity endorsement is not without potential risks. The purposes of this paper are threefold: first, to discuss how the marriage works between the brand and celebrity; second, to describe the benefits accrue from celebrity endorsement and third, to warn of potential dangers of the strategy.