1.05 ENDORSEMENTS
ENDORSMENTS
A celebrity endorser is a well-known person
who:
 Approves
Promotes
Supports goods/services for pay
Many well-known athletes and entertainers are paid
to endorse a wide variety of sport-related products and
events.
 Most commonly used type of endorsement
involves paying celebrities to appear in
advertisements.
 Companies tell them what to say. It involves having the
person appear in a print or broadcast advertisement and talk
about how great the product is.
 Other types of endorsements include paying celebrities to
use brand of equipment, wear a certain brand of clothing, or
appear at an event.
ENDORSEMENTS
Companies pay colleges and high school
sport teams to wear a manufacturer’s
clothing.
 The hope is that other young people will want to buy the
clothing because they are influenced by what the athletes are
wearing.
 The student athletes are suggesting their approval rather
than making positive statements, giving testimonials, or
serving as spokespersons.
ENDORSING AN EVENT
 A celebrity attending a grand opening
to attract customers.
 Endorsing an event simply by being
associated with it does not involve
appearing in a print ad, saying a
tournament is great, or cheering for a
football team.
Testimonial
A person who uses product stating
the benefits received from the use
of the product.
 A celebrity who is paid to use a product and discuss
its effectiveness during a lengthy TV commercial, or
infomercial, is actually giving a testimonial for the
product.
During the infomercial, the
celebrity explains why the product
is good and why consumers should
buy it.
Warm-up
Which of the following is an example of a
celebrity endorsing an event simply by being
associated with it:
A. Appearing in a print ad
B. Saying a tournament is great
C. Attending a grand opening
D. Cheering for a football team
Warm-up
A celebrity who is paid to use a product and discuss
Its effectiveness during a lengthy TV commercial is
giving a(n)
A. interview.
B. personal observation.
C. testimonial.
D. sales presentation.
What type of
businesses uses
sport figures?
All types of businesses use celebrity
sport figures to endorse
their goods and services.
Even businesses that have no connection
whatsoever with sports or events pay well known
athletes to be endorsers.
Endorsing Services
Celebrities promote services
like credit cards and health
services.
 Although celebrities are most often
used to endorse tangible items on the
retail level, they are sometimes used to
endorse services.
Cross-promotion
 Cross-promotion occurs when a
celebrity endorses more than one
product, or products for another
company.
 Then, all the companies gain from the increased awareness
because consumers associate the celebrity with all the
products.
Example: Cross-promotion
 An example of cross-promotion is a
appearing in a commercial for:
A celebrity a soft drink while wearing a
certain brand of clothing holding a certain
brand of tennis racquet.
All three products benefit even though the
commercial is for the soft drink.
The purpose of inviting celebrities
to participate is to increase
attendance.
 For example, on opening day of baseball season, most
ballparks have a celebrity throw out the first ball. Fans come
not only to see the game, but to see the celebrity.
Celebrities Are Most Effective
Promoting Products Related
to Their Sport.
 Endorsement has a certain amount
of authority.
 Celebrities know a lot about those
products.
 People pay attention to what they
say.
OBJECTIVE B
Considerations using
celebrity endorsements
Benefits of Celebrity Endorsers
Celebrities attract
attention
People want to be
associated with
celebrities
Benefits of Celebrity Endorsers
 Celebrities have a lot of appeal because of
their fame and because the public is curious
about them.
 As a result, people are more likely to read
an ad, watch a commercial, or attend a
special event featuring a celebrity rather
than an ordinary, unknown person.
Disadvantages of
Celebrity endorsements
Inappropriate or illegal actions
Celeb. overshadow product/service
Expensive to pay Celeb.
Inappropriate or illegal actions
Ravens' Ray Rice: 'My actions
were inexcusable'
FEDERAL TRADE
COMMISSION
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
Endorsements are a
form of advertising.
 Businesses that use celebrity
endorsers must follow the Federal
Trade Commission’s rules and guidelines
regarding advertising because endorsements
are a form of advertising.
A FTC rule is that endorsements
must always reflect the honest
opinions
Kim Kardashian removed a series of Facebook and
Instagram posts touting the benefits of prescription
morning sickness drug Diclegis after they were found
to breach US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
regulations.
 The FTC regulation prohibit businesses from
reworded to distort the endorser’s opinion or
experience with a product.
This means that a company
cannot use only part of what a celebrity says to make it sound like the
celebrity believes in a product. To avoid
this problem, businesses generally use exact quotations.
The celebrity endorser must
be the actual user of the
product or service.
The celebrity must be an expert of the
product they are endorsing.
Example: A
professional
bowler
endorsing a
brand of
bowling balls.