Alyssa Berkovitz FGCU: Celebrity Endorsements

            Now more than ever, celebrities have been seen in advertisements for brands and products across many industries. Advertisers manipulate a celebrity’s image to use them for product endorsements. As far as consumer responses go, using a celebrity to endorse a product gets the audience’s attention because they see a familiar face. They also facilitate brand recognition by putting the brand in a positive light in consumers’ minds and creating a personality for the brand. For these reasons, celebrity endorsements are very favorable to advertisers and companies alike, as they have been proven to boost sales. However, when examined more closely, celebrity endorsements can be seen as immoral and unethical. Additionally, the media publicly idolizes underweight girls and scrutinizes those who weight healthy amounts. This creates unrealistic views for young girls who are easily swayed the supposed views of celebrities. Therefore, celebrity endorsements are immoral and misleading and should be banned outright through legislation.

The issue with celebrity endorsements of diet products is further exacerbated by the media. Tabloids, celebrity gossip websites, and entertainment news television shows have made this problem continually worse as the definition of “overweight” has become more and more corrupt. Recently, the media has been known calling famous people “fat” when they really are underweight or of healthy weight. A few months ago, photos of Tyra Banks wearing a bathing suit surfaced and the public reacted in an extremely negative way. Though she may not be as skinny as she was when she was at her peak, Tyra Banks is still one of the world’s most famous supermodels, so this accusation is ludicrous. Jessica Simpson, at a height of 5’2 and weight 120lbs, has also gotten unwarranted negative attention for the same reasons. When young girls witness the scrutiny that celebrities get for not being a size zero, it can have very dangerous affects. Young girls are easily impressionable and are in the process of maturing, so body image is a vulnerable area for teenagers and can cause them to have eating disorders. More advertisements than we generally pick up on feature celebrities. The celebrity can be indirectly associated with the product; for example, sometimes, a famous person cannot be seen in the ad, but simply lends his or her distinctive voice to the voiceover in an advertisement. Patrick Dempsey, for instance, has voiced dozens of commercials, which leads audiences to recognize a voice that they know. Viewers subconsciously see the product in a better light, believing that the product is more trustworthy when in reality, Patrick himself most likely knows little or nothing about the product he is advertising.

The immoral and unrealistic values that are consequently set by the celebrities who endorse products are reflected beyond the weight loss industry. The government should pass legislation that bans the use of celebrity endorsements altogether. They are immoral and misleading to consumers, and should be classified under false advertisement. With this ban, the only instance in which a celebrity should be seen in an advertisement is if their name is on the product. For instance, Paris Hilton has her own perfume line. In this case, it would be acceptable for her to be seen in an advertisement for this perfume. Similarly, it is reasonable to see P. Diddy in a commercial for his own clothing line. A ban on celebrity endorsements is just the tip of the iceberg for eliminating the problem, but with an issue that has gotten so out of hand, it would be a great start.

This entry was posted on 14. April 2010 at 01:12 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.