“I have nothing to declare except my celebrity …”
I have a guilty secret.
Well, perhaps it’s not that secret – not to my close friends and family. And not that guilty either actually – I see the towering piles of glossy mags in my flat as a charming idiosyncrasy rather than the funeral pyres of my critical faculties.
So yes, I admit it, I am a Celebophile.
But much as I love those (mostly) under-talented, overpaid, overhyped individuals, it’s a brave PR professional that jumps into the world of celebrity endorsements without carefully looking at the graveyard of past failures.
Let’s take a quick tour:
• Naomi Campbell: The British supermodel famously posed nude for PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), claiming she would rather “go naked than wear fur.” Which was unfortunate, as she was later seen wearing fur on the catwalk.
• Iman: A diamond might be forever, but Iman’s relationship with De Beers was not. She quit after being told about the forcible relocation of about 2,000 Bushmen from land close to where the company mines its diamonds.
• Macaulay Culkin: Just a few days before signing a lucrative contract to endorse Coca-Cola’s Sprite soft drink, the young Home Alone star was quoted in an article as saying, “I’m not crazy about the stuff. But money is money.”
And just this week, Lexus’s plan to use Celebrity Saint, Bob Geldof, in a blog debate about the green credentials of its hybrid models backfired (no apologies for the pun. It was deliberate and well-considered).
Geldof commented that hybrid technology “by definition doesn’t strike me as being that coherent.” He proceeded to go for the jugular on renewable technologies, stating that wind and wave energy were “Mickey Mouse” and that to “really help the planet, we have to go nuclear, fast.”
(You can almost see BNFL checking its corporate address book for the number of Geldof’s agent).
Sir Bob’s quick trip off-piste from Lexus’s corporate messages underlines the dangers of using a celebrity to garner publicity for a campaign. They may increase the attractiveness of the ‘sell’, and they do undoubtedly get press coverage (you only have to look at Jamie Oliver and his Sainsbury’s campaign to see that). But there is no guarantee they will say what you want them to. And if they don’t, then you could be getting publicity for all the wrong reasons.
Moreover, a message refracted through a celebrity-obsessed media is likely to be an over-simplified one. And, according to independent research conducted last year, it might not even have any influence with your customer base: AccountAbility found that celebrity endorsements rank just above leaflets through the mailbox in terms of resonating with consumers.
But if your target audiences are the tabs and the glossies, and/or you have a Croesian size advertising budget, how do you pick the right celeb? Ensure the individual is well suited to the brand/cause, and that it’s something they believe in. Or even just like.
Oh, and by the way, never employ a WAG.