A content analysis study of the use of celebrity endorsers in magazine advertising

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1 A content analysis study of the use of celebrity endorsers in magazine advertising george e. Belch and Michael a. Belch San Diego State University this paper presents the results of a content analysis study that examined the use of celebrity endorsers in magazine advertising. advertisements appearing in 37 different magazines representing eight major classification categories were analysed to gain insight into the prevalence of use of celebrity endorsers in magazine advertising. only 10% of the magazine ads run during the time period analysed contained a celebrity, which is much lower than estimates of their use often reported in the media. the findings show that the use of celebrities varies by magazine type with their use being highest for sports and teen publications. the use of celebrities also varies by product/service category as does the type of celebrity utilised, such as athletes, actors/actresses, entertainers and supermodels. Celebrity use was based primarily on the source characteristics of popularity/likeability followed by physical attractiveness. Celebrity use based on expertise occurs primarily for athletic products. Introduction the use of celebrities in advertising has been a common practice for more than 60 years. Marketers recognise the value of using people who are recognised and often admired, or even idolised, by their target audience, such as actors and actresses, athletes, entertainers and other popular public figures, as a way to draw attention to their advertising messages. It is estimated that between 14 and 20% of all television commercials in the united states feature celebrities; and in some countries, such as Japan, India and taiwan, they are even more prevalent in tv ads (Creswell 2008). It is interesting to note that estimates of the use of celebrities in advertising are based on their appearance in television commercials. However, estimates of the use of celebrities may be veiled by the pervasiveness of television advertising, which results in a lack of attention to their prevalence in other media. While most of the attention is focused on celebrities in the context of television advertising, attention also needs to be given to their use in other media such as magazines. Magazines account for 15% of total advertising expenditures in the us and, according International Journal of advertising, 32(3), pp advertising association Published by Warc, doi: /IJa

2 InternatIonal Journal of advertising, 2013, 32(3) to the association of Magazine Media, 93% of adults (18+) read magazines, the average reader spends an average of 42 minutes on each issue, and the median number of issues read each month is 7.7 (Magazine Media Fact Book 2011/2012). Magazines also have specific characteristics that make them conducive to the use of celebrities, such as their high degree of audience selectivity and reproduction quality. However, little attention has been given to the degree to which celebrities are used in magazine ads by marketers, or the nature of their utilisation. the purpose of this study is to use content analysis to examine the prevalence of celebrities in magazine advertising and to better understand factors related to their use, including the type of product or service and magazine category. Kassarjian notes that content analysis is a scientific, objective, systematic, quantitative, and generalisable description of communications content (1977, p. 10). thus, content analysis is an appropriate way to assess the degree to which celebrities are used in advertising, and the nature of their use. attention is also given in this study to the various types of celebrity used by marketers (actor/actress, athlete, entertainer, supermodel) as well as basis for their use (expertise, physical attractiveness or popularity/likeability). the findings of this study provide a valuable insight into the extent to which celebrities are used in a major advertising medium other than television and the nature of their use by marketers. Background The use of celebrities there are a number of reasons marketers use celebrities in their advertising messages and pay them large sums of money to endorse their company and/or brands. a very basic reason for using a celebrity in an advertisement is that s/he may have stopping power, which is viewed as the capability of drawing attention and interest to an advertising message in a very cluttered media environment (atkin & Block 1983). according to the association of Magazine Media, the content of the average consumer magazine is 47% advertising and 53% editorial (Magazine Media Fact Book 2011/2012). Many magazines, such as fashion and lifestyle publications, can have up to 70% of their pages devoted to advertising, which makes the clutter problem particularly acute. thus, the use of popular celebrities can be a way for an ad to stand out in a cluttered media environment and attract the attention of viewers or readers. another reason marketers use celebrities in their ads is to impact consumers decision process by favourably influencing their evaluations, feelings, attitudes and purchase intentions towards their brands. Most of the research on the value of celebrity endorsers has focused on their source characteristics or attributes, including expertise, trustworthiness and attractiveness. these attributes are viewed as positive characteristics of a communicator that favourably influence the receiver s acceptance of a message (ohanian 1991). a number of studies have shown that celebrities perceived as having expertise with a product or service can lend persuasive power to an advertising message (speck et al. 1988; ohanian 1990, 1991; fink et al. 2004; rossiter & smidts 2012). studies have also shown 370

3 CeleBrItY endorsers In MagaZIne advertising that the expertise of a celebrity endorser interacts with his/her physical attractiveness (eisend & langner 2010). a meta-analysis of celebrity endorser studies conducted by amos et al. (2008) examined the relationship between source characteristics and advertising effectiveness from 32 studies that provided sufficient information for inclusion in their analyses. their results showed that the characteristics of celebrity expertise, trustworthiness and attractiveness had the most influential effects on advertising effectiveness measures such as brand attitudes, attitude towards the ad and purchase intentions. their analyses also indicated that negative information about a celebrity had the largest impact on celebrity endorsement effectiveness. another popular stream of research related to the use of celebrities is based on their fit or match with the product, service or brand they are endorsing. the celebrity match up hypothesis has been used as the conceptual framework for numerous studies examining the effectiveness of celebrity endorsers (Kahle & Homer 1985; Kamins 1990; Kamins & gupta 1994; lynch & schuler 1994). the basic premise of this hypothesis is that the effectiveness of advertisements utilising celebrities depends on the fit, or match, between the characteristics of the celebrity and the product/service being endorsed. a number of studies have shown that the use of a celebrity whose image or characteristics are highly congruent with the product or brand leads to higher levels of both advertiser and celebrity credibility than when the level of congruence is low (Kamins & gupta 1994; till & shimp 1998; till & Busler 2000). a study by de los salmones et al. (2013) examined the effectiveness of a celebrity endorser in advertising for a humanitarian organisation. they found that the celebrity s effectiveness and credibility as an endorser depends on several factors, including perceived fit with the social cause, attribution of altruistic motivation, celebrity image and attitudes towards celebrity activism. thedegreeoffitbetweenacelebrityandaproductorbrandcanbebasedonavariety of factors, including his/her level of expertise, personality, image or even physical characteristics. for example, professional athletes can lend credibility and persuasive power to an advertising message based on perceptions of their perceived expertise with athletic products. Celebrities such as actors/actresses or entertainers, as well as athletes, may match up well with products or brands based on their popularity or attractiveness. a study by fink et al. (2004) found that athlete attractiveness and expertise were both positively related to endorsement fit, although the effects of expertise on fit were stronger than those of attractiveness. the use of celebrities such as actors/actresses and supermodels in advertising for products such as clothing, jewellery, cosmetics and personal care products is often based on their physical attractiveness. erfgen (2011) conducted a systematic review of 36 studies from the celebrity endorsement literature to determine success factors for brand image effects. He identified 24 drivers of brand image including celebrity, message, advertising channel and recipient characteristics. With regard to celebrity characteristics, credibility (including its subdimensions of expertise and trustworthiness), physical attractiveness relevant to the product domain, and image-based congruence emerged as factors that positively influence brand image. 371

4 InternatIonal Journal of advertising, 2013, 32(3) Most of the research on the use of celebrity endorsers has examined their effects on various measures of persuasion such as beliefs, attitudes and purchase intentions, including how their effectiveness might vary in relation to source characteristics, as well as the type of product they are endorsing and the characteristics of the message recipient (atkin & Block 1983; Biswas et al. 2006). However, several studies have also examined the practitioner perspective regarding the use of celebrity endorsers to gain insight into the factors taken into consideration by marketing and advertising professionals when choosing a celebrity endorser. a study by Miciak and shanklin (1994) surveyed practitioners in advertising agencies as well as on the client side, and found that important factors cited in choosing celebrity endorsers included attributes such as their image, trustworthiness, familiarity to the audience and the fit with the product. erdogan et al. (2001) surveyed ad agency directors and managers in the united Kingdom who were involved in celebrity campaigns, in regard to characteristics that were considered important when selecting an endorser and how these factors differed in relation to product type. the factors rated most important by the agency practitioners were celebrity target audience match, celebrity product/brand match and the overall image of the celebrity. other factors cited as important included celebrity trustworthiness, controversy/risk, prior endorsements, and the familiarity and likeability of the celebrity. Research questions Prevalence of use of celebrities as noted above, there have been no published empirical studies that have examined the extent to which celebrities are used in magazine advertising in the united states, despite the fact that large amounts of money are paid to athletes, actors/actresses, entertainers and other types of celebrity whose endorsements may appear primarily in the print media. Industry estimates of the use of celebrities are based on their prevalence in television commercials, and range from 14 to 20% (Cresswell 2008), although the study conducted by Choi et al. (2005) suggests that their use may be lower. to fully understand the degree to which celebrities are used in advertising, it is important to examine the degree to which they are used in magazine ads as well as television commercials, and how their use varies across different types of publication. the first research question focuses on these issues: RSQ1: How prevalent is the use of celebrities in magazine advertising, and does their use vary across different types of magazine? Use of celebrities by product/service category Most of the theorising regarding the use of celebrities in advertising suggests that their effectiveness is likely to be product dependent, while research has supported the basic tenets of the match-up hypothesis, which suggests that celebrities are more effective when there is a fit between them and the product they are endorsing. McCracken s 372

5 CeleBrItY endorsers In MagaZIne advertising (1989) meaning transfer model also suggests that marketers must decide on the image or symbolic meanings important to the target audience for a particular product/service, company or brand. they then must determine which celebrity best represents or captures the meaning or image they want to project. the value of using celebrities is likely to vary by product type, as celebrity endorsers work best when image is important and/or it is difficult to differentiate a brand on a functional or performance basis. Products such as fashion apparel, cosmetics, personal care items and jewellery are categories that lend themselves to the use of celebrity endorsers, while functional products such as consumer electronics, pharmaceuticals, or business-related products and services should be less likely to rely on the use of a celebrity endorser. another area where the use of celebrities should be high is in product categories associated with athletic performance. there are a number of reasons why marketers of athletic products are likely to use individuals who have achieved notoriety and/or popularity based on their level of athletic performance. Consumers are likely to see athletes as experts who can reassure them about the quality of an athletic product or brand, particularly when it is perceived as being related to the athlete s performance level. another reason is that many sports fans admire, and often idolise, athletes, and view the use of a brand they endorse as a way of identifying with them. avid sports fans often engage in a psychological process known as BIrging, or basking in reflective glory, whereby they associate themselves with successful others such that another s success becomes their own (Cialdini et al. 1976; lee 1985; snyder et al. 1986). Based on this discussion, the second research question emerges: RSQ2: How prevalent is the use of celebrities in magazine advertising for different types of products/services, and how does their use vary by product/service category? Type and basis of use of celebrities also of interest in this study are the characteristics of celebrities used in magazine advertising and the basis for their use. as discussed above, the fit between a celebrity and a product can be based on various source characteristics such as credibility (expertise and trustworthiness) or attractiveness, which in turn can be grounded in the popularity or likeability of a celebrity, or his/her physical attractiveness. the use of celebrities in product categories where functionality or performance is a salient purchase motive is likely to be based on their perceived expertise. However, for categories where emotional motives such as brand image or identification are important, celebrities are likely to be used more for their attractiveness. research on physical attractiveness has shown that physically attractive communicators generally have a positive impact and generate more favourable evaluations of both advertisements and products than less attractive models (Baker & Churchill 1977; Chaiken 1979; Joseph 1982; Jones et al. 1998). Products such as cosmetics, fashion apparel and certain types of personal care products are likely to benefit from the use of an attractive celebrity, as physical appearance is very important in the marketing of these items. 373

6 InternatIonal Journal of advertising, 2013, 32(3) the attractiveness of a celebrity does not have to be based on physical appearance as it can include other virtuous characteristics that message recipients perceive as desirable in an endorser. other components of the source attractiveness model include similarity, familiarity and liking. similarity is defined as a supposed resemblance between the source and the receiver of the message, familiarity refers to knowledge through exposure, and likeability as affection for the source as a result of physical appearance, behaviour or other personal traits (triandis 1971). the meta-analysis of celebrity endorser effects conducted by amos et al. (2008) found that familiarity and likeability were influential factors in explaining the effectiveness of celebrity endorsers. as noted above, surveys of advertising and marketing practitioners have shown that familiarity and liking are two source characteristics that are often taken into consideration in choosing a celebrity. While some advertising and marketing practitioners rely upon their own intuition and insight in judging these characteristics, many turn to research that measures a celebrity s familiarity and appeal among their target audience. for example, many companies and their advertising agencies rely on Q-scores that are commercially available from Marketing evaluations, Inc. for more than 1,800 sports and performer personalities. the two key components of the Q-score are the familiarity score, which indicates the percentage of people who have heard of the person, and the one of my favourites score, which is a measure of the appeal or popularity/likeability of the celebrity. the primary types of celebrity endorser used in advertising tend to be athletes, actors/actresses, entertainers and supermodels who achieve celebrity status (e.g. gisele Bundchen, Kate Moss and Heidi Klum). However, there are other types of individual who can attain celebrity status and can be used to promote a product, such as news personalities, sportscasters, politicians, authors and business executives. the basis for using celebrities as endorsers includes various source characteristics such as their expertise and attractiveness, which in turn can be based on popularity and/or physical appearance. this discussion leads to the final set of research questions: RSQ3: How prevalent is the use of different types of celebrity in magazine advertising and what are the bases for their use as endorsers? also what types of celebrity are used as endorsers for different product/service categories and do the bases for their use vary? Method Magazines to conduct this study, advertisements appearing in the highest-circulation magazines across eight different categories were analysed. the categories are based on the classifications used by srds, and include general news, sports, entertainment, men s, women s shelter, women s fashion, teen and business. the magazines were selected based on circulation figures from the audit Bureau of Circulations the primary circulation verification service for consumer magazines as well as major business publications. all of the magazines used in this study 374

7 CeleBrItY endorsers In MagaZIne advertising were published in april fifteen of the magazines were weekly publications, 21 were monthlies and two were published bi-monthly. for weekly magazines, one of the four weekly issues for the month of april was randomly selected. only ads that were at least a quarter of a page in size were analysed as it is very rare to see a celebrity used in an ad smaller than this. also some magazines contained a number of pages towards the back of the publication, with as many as 10 to 12 small shopper information ads as well as numerous classified ads. these types of ad were not included in this study. Products/services each ad was categorised into one of the 20 product/service categories shown in table 1. Based on data from the Publishers Information Bureau, these product/service categories accounted for more than 80% of the total dollar amount spent on magazine advertising in the united states in the 20 product/service categories also accounted for 85% of the advertisements that appeared in the 37 magazines analysed for study. the remaining 15% of the ads were spread across a variety of products and services. Source characteristics each person appearing in the print ads was classified based on several source characteristics, including gender and celebrity status (celebrity or non-celebrity), type of celebrity and basis of use. for the purposes of this study, a celebrity endorser was defined as any individual who enjoys public recognition and who uses this recognition on behalf of a consumer good by appearing with it in an advertisement (McCracken 1989). However, it should be noted that a celebrity endorsement could also be for a business product/service or a company, since business publications were one of the magazine categories analysed. to help in the identification of celebrities appearing in the magazine ads, a list of celebrities tracked in the Winter 2007 Performer Q survey conducted by Marketing evaluations, Inc. was obtained. this list provided the names of various actors/actresses, entertainers, athletes, and other Table 1: Product/service categories 1. Telecommunication products/services 2. Automobiles (including light trucks and SUVs) 3. Financial services 4. Personal care products/cosmetics 5. Travel/tourism (hotels, resorts, airlines) 6. Retail stores 7. Consumer electronics 8. Home appliances 9. Fashion/apparel (clothing, shoes) 10. Jewellery/accessories (watches, purses) 11. Athletic products/equipment 12. Pharmaceuticals prescription/otc 13. Fast food/restaurants 14. Alcoholic beverages 15. Non-alcoholic beverages 16. Media (music, videos, movies, books) 17. Furniture/home furnishings 18. Business products/services 19. Food 20. Cigarettes/tobacco products 375

8 InternatIonal Journal of advertising, 2013, 32(3) sports personalities, news personalities and business executives who were being tracked in the survey conducted during this time period. Celebrities appearing in an advertisement were further coded into categories based on type and basis of use in the ad. the specific categories for type of celebrity include athlete or coach, actor/actress, entertainer, business executive, supermodel, sportscaster/commentator, news personality, author/writer, and other. (fashion supermodels are considered celebrities in this study as they often achieve celebrity status because of their popularity and presence in the media.) the bases of celebrity use include expertise, attractiveness based on popularity or likeability, and physical attractiveness. Coding of the source characteristics a three-judge panel coded the characteristics of each person appearing in the magazine ads. two of the judges were professors who teach advertising and integrated marketing communications courses on a regular basis, while the third judge was a graduate student working on a special studies research project on the use of celebrities in advertising.the coding of the source characteristics was very straightforward for gender and type of celebrity, while coding for the basis of use of the celebrity was more subjective. for the purposes of this study expertise was defined as the extent to which the use of a celebrity was primarily centred on him/ her being perceived as a source of valid assertions about the product or service based on the knowledge, experience or skills s/he might possess as an endorser (erdogan 1999).the other two bases of celebrity use that were coded for this study included physical attractiveness and likeability/popularity. Celebrity use that was judged to be primarily based on the physical attractiveness of the individual, such as the use of a fashion model or attractive actor/actress or entertainer, was coded as such.the use of the celebrity endorser was coded as being based on popularity/likeability when his/her use was judged to be based more on admiration or recognition. this could stem from the personality or lifestyle characteristics that would make the celebrity popular among the target audience rather than physical characteristics. the judges were given operational definitions of these categories and trained in their application until each had a good understanding of the coding scheme. of the 2,358 ads appearing in the 37 magazines analysed in this study, a little more than two-thirds (68%) contained one or more persons in them. one or more males were present in 515 of the ads, while females were present in 1,081 of the ads. the coding for celebrities appearing in the ads required the judges to classify them by type and the basis for using them in the ad. all three judges agreed on the classification of the celebrities into one of the nine category types for 80% of celebrities appearing in the ads, and two of the judges agreed on another 15%. for use of the celebrity, there was unanimous agreement for 76% of the celebrities appearing in the ads while two of three judges agreed on another 22%. the coding convention adopted for the study was that if at least two of the three judges agreed in their assignment of the person to a category, that categorisation was assigned to the individual. thus, the modal scoring convention resulted in the classification of 95% to 98% of the celebrities for the two categories used in this study. the remaining classification of celebrities for the two categories was done after discussion among the three judges. 376

9 CeleBrItY endorsers In MagaZIne advertising Inter-judge reliability to determine the reliability of the type and use coding of the celebrities appearing in the ads analysed for this study, rust and Cooil s (1994) proportional reduction in loss (Prl) reliability measure for qualitative data was used.this approach addresses the problem that the percentage of agreement between judges does not take into account the likelihood of chance agreement between raters occurring, particularly when the number of coding categories is low. the Prl approach is based on the proportion of inter-judge agreements, and considers the number of judges as well as the number of coding categories. for the coding of the celebrity characteristics, the Prl measures were 0.98 for type of celebrity and 0.97 for basis of use. overall, the high Prl reliability measures suggest that the procedures used in this study were successful in reliably categorising the celebrities who appeared in the magazine ads based on type and use. Results Prevalence of celebrities in magazine advertisements the first research question concerns the degree to which celebrities are used in magazine advertising and whether their use varies across different types of magazine. the overall results regarding the prevalence of various source characteristics in magazine advertising are shown in table 2, which presents the total number of ads that appeared in each magazine, the percentage with models in them, and the number that used celebrities. the results are summarised for each of the eight magazine categories to provide insight as to whether the use of models, as well as celebrities, varies by type of publication. only 225, or 10%, of the 2,358 ads appearing in the 37 magazines analysed contained a celebrity, while 14% of the ads that contained a model used a celebrity.the use of celebrities was highest for the teen and sports magazine categories (19% and 16%, respectively) and lowest for general news along with women s shelter and business publications. none of the 93 ads appearing in the general news publications used a celebrity, and only 5% of the ads in the business magazines used one. Celebrity use was also very low for women s shelter (4%) and men s magazines (6%). Individual magazines containing the highest percentage of celebrities in their ad pages were the sports publications ESPN The Magazine, Sports Illustrated and Golf Digest, as well as teen magazines including J-14, Seventeen and Cosmo Girl. the percentage of ads containing celebrities was also high for several fashion publications targeting women, such as Cosmopolitan, Glamour and Elle. Celebrity use by product category the second research question pertains to the relationship between the use of celebrities in magazine advertising and product types. to analyse this relationship, only the 12 product/ service categories for which there were at least 50 ads across the 37 magazines were used. the number of ads for the remaining eight categories was believed to be too small to 377

10 InternatIonal Journal of advertising, 2013, 32(3) Table 2: Use of models and celebrities by magazine Category General news Number of ads Number with model Percentage with model Number with celebrity Percentage with celebrity Percentage with model using celebrity Time Newsweek TV Guide US News & World Report Total: General news Sports Sports Illustrated ESPN The Magazine Golf Digest Sporting News Runners World Total: Sports Entertainment People US Weekly In Touch Weekly Star National Enquirer Total: Entertainment Men s Playboy Maxim Men s Health Field & Stream Stuff Total: Men s Women s shelter Good Housekeeping Woman s Day Family Circle Redbook Total: Shelter Fashion women Cosmopolitan Glamour Vogue Allure Elle Total: Fashion women (continued) 378

11 CeleBrItY endorsers In MagaZIne advertising Table 2: Use of models and celebrities by magazine (continued) Number with model Number with celebrity Percentage with celebrity Percentage with model using celebrity Category Number of ads Percentage with model Teen Seventeen Cosmo Girl Teen Vogue J Total: Teen Business Money Forbes BusinessWeek Fortune Fast Company Total: Business Total: All magazines 2,358 1, draw any meaningful conclusions regarding the use of celebrities in ads for these types of products and services. table 3 shows the number and percentage of ads in each product/ service category that used celebrities. the categories with the highest percentage of celebrities in their ads are media (music/videos/movies) and athletic products (21% and 20%, respectively). these results reflect that fact that celebrities such as entertainers/artists are often used in ads promoting their music, while actors/actresses are used to advertise the Table 3: Use of celebrities by product category Product category Number of ads Number with male celebrity Number with female celebrity Percentage with celebrity Cosmetics/personal care Fashion/apparel Food products Jewellery/accessories Media (music, DVDs, movies) Pharmaceuticals Automobiles Athletic products Financial services Travel/tourism Business products/services Consumer electronics

12 InternatIonal Journal of advertising, 2013, 32(3) movies in which they star. Celebrity athletes are also frequently used to promote athletic products such as shoes, apparel and sports equipment. It is interesting to note that the use of celebrities is extremely low in certain product categories, including financial services, automobiles, consumer electronics, business products/services and food products. this may reflect the fact that advertising for most of these product/service categories is often more information based, and focuses more on specific product/service attributes rather than subjective factors such as image or style. However, automotive advertisers often focus on image and style in their advertising strategies, so it is interesting that the use of celebrities is so low for this category. Characteristics of celebrities used in magazine ads the final research question involves the characteristics of the celebrities used in print ads. table 4 shows the breakdown of the types of celebrity appearing in the ads, as well as the way they were used. as can be seen in this table, the types of celebrity used most often across the 37 magazines analysed were actors/actresses (34%), followed by athletes (27%). the other two types of celebrity used most often were entertainers and supermodels. also shown in table 4 are the results regarding the way celebrities were used in the ads. the primary basis for using a celebrity in the magazine ads analysed was for his/her popularity appeal.the majority (52%) of the celebrities were used for their popularity/likeability, while 30% were judged to be used for their physical attractiveness, and 16% based on expertise. to gain further insight into the way celebrities were used in the ads, we examined the use of celebrities in relation to the magazine category as well as the type of product/service being advertised. table 5 shows the type and basis of use for celebrities across the various magazine categories (general news magazines were not included in this analysis since no celebrities were used in any of the ads appearing in these publications). as can be seen in this table, there is variation in type of celebrity used in relation to the magazine category. for example, most of the ads appearing in teen magazines that contained a celebrity used an actor/actress or entertainer, while fashion publications relied on actors/actresses and Table 4: Characteristics of celebrities used in ads Type of celebrity Number Percentage Use of celebrity Number Percentage Actor/actress Athlete Fashion model Entertainer Business executive 5 2 News personality 3 1 Other 4 2 Total Popularity/likeability Physical attractiveness Expertise Other 4 2 Total

13 CeleBrItY endorsers In MagaZIne advertising Table 5: Type and use of celebrities by magazine category Category/type Athlete Actor/actress Entertainer Fashion model Other Total Fashion Sports Teen Men s Entertainment Women s shelter Business Category/use Expert Attractive popularity Attractive physical Other Total Fashion Sports Teen Men s Entertainment Women s shelter Business fashion models. However, all but two of the celebrities used in ads appearing in sports magazines were athletes. a chi square analysis examined the relationship between magazine category and type of celebrity used. this analysis was limited to the three categories of magazines that had a sufficient number of celebrities. the results indicated there is a significant relationship between magazine category and type of celebrity used (c 2 =168.4), 4df, p < 0.001). table 5 also shows that there is variation in the basis for use of celebrities appearing in ads across the various types of magazines. ads in fashion magazines that use celebrities relied primarily on their physical attractiveness (52%) followed by popularity (42%), while ads in teen magazines used celebrities based predominantly on popularity (71%) and to a lesser degree physical attractiveness (29%). ads in sports publications were most likely to use celebrities based on their popularity/likability (51%) followed closely by expertise (47%). ads appearing in men s magazines that utilised celebrities relied primarily on their popularity, while the basis for using celebrities in entertainment magazines was divided equally between popularity/likeability and physical attractiveness. the analysis showed that there is a relationship between magazine category and basis for using a celebrity (c 2 = 59.05, 4 df, p < 0.001). table 6 shows type and basis of use for celebrities across various product/service categories. only those product/service categories for which at least 10% of the ads analysed used a celebrity were included in this analysis. as with magazine categories, there is variation in the types of celebrity and basis of use across the various product areas. Cosmetics/ personal care products rely primarily on actors/actresses and supermodels, which is logical 381

14 InternatIonal Journal of advertising, 2013, 32(3) Table 6: Type and use of celebrities by product category Category/type of celebrity Athlete Actor/actress Entertainer Fashion model Other Total Cosmetics/personal care Fashion/apparel Media (music/dvds/movies) Athletic products Jewellery/accessories Category/use of celebrity Expert Attractive popularity Attractive physical Other Total Cosmetics/personal care Fashion/apparel Media (music/dvds/movies) Athletic products Jewellery/accessories given that these products are usually promoting ways to enhance one s physical appearance and attractiveness. fashion/apparel products utilised entertainers the most when using a celebrity, followed by actors/actresses; while ads promoting media (music, videos, movies) used actors/actresses, athletes and entertainers. as would be expected, ads for athletic products used athletes when employing a celebrity as part of the message. It is interesting to note that ads for jewellery/accessories show variation in the type of celebrities utilised, as athletes, actors/actresses and fashion models were used about equally in ads for this product category. also shown in table 6 is the basis of use for celebrities in the ads for the various product categories. as can be seen in this table, cosmetics and personal care products primarily used celebrities based on two factors popularity/likeability (51%) and physical attractiveness (49%). fashion/apparel ads that utilise celebrities do so based mostly on their popularity (85%), while ads promoting media rely primarily on the popularity of the celebrity (66%). the use of celebrities in ads based on their expertise was most prevalent in ads promoting athletic products, as more than two-thirds of the ads in this category that contained celebrities used them on this basis. (Chi square tests of the relationships between celebrity type and use by product category could not be conducted because of the low number of celebrities for many of the product categories.) Discussion a major goal of this study was to determine the degree to which celebrities are used in magazine advertising in the us, as most of the estimates of their use are based on their prevalence in television commercials. the results show that 10% of the magazine ads run during the time period analysed in this study contained a celebrity. this percentage is in line with the cross-cultural content analysis done by Choi et al. (2005), which found that 382

15 CeleBrItY endorsers In MagaZIne advertising only about 9% of television commercials aired during prime time on the major networks in the us used a celebrity. However, the percentage is lower than the estimates of 14 to 20% that are often reported from industry studies conducted by research firms such as Millward Brown (Creswell 2008). unfortunately the methodology used for these estimates is not provided, making it difficult to understand how they are derived. there are several reasons why the percentage of magazine ads including a celebrity might be lower than for television commercials. estimates of the use of celebrities in television advertising are often based on their use in commercials appearing during prime time, which is dominated by advertising for national brands. these brands are usually consumer products and services that have much larger advertising budgets and can afford to pay endorsement fees for popular celebrities. Many of the ads appearing in the magazines used in this study were for companies and/or brands that may be unable to afford to use celebrity endorsers in their advertising messages or may feel that it is not cost effective to do so. the use of celebrities in magazine ads may also be lower because they do not fit well with the execution of a print ad. Magazine ads are static in nature as they rely on the use of a photo or image of the product being advertised and perhaps some ad copy. there is also a finite amount of space available and advertisers may be concerned over using it to show a celebrity rather than product. television commercials are much more dynamic in nature and provide greater creative opportunities for using a celebrity endorser by showing him/her using, discussing and/or engaging with a product or service. It is also likely that many products/services categories do not lend themselves to the effective use of a celebrity endorser, such as financial services, business products and consumer electronics. Marketers of these types of product/service may prefer straight-sell types of ad execution that focus on features and benefits, and view the use of a celebrity endorser as unnecessary or even distracting. another goal of this study was to determine whether the use of celebrity endorsers varies across different types of magazine. the results clearly show that the use of celebrities varies by magazine category, as their use was highest for ads appearing in sports publications as well as those targeting teens, and lowest for general news, women s shelter and business publications. It should be expected that celebrities would be used more in sports publications, where the use of athletes as endorsers is a common practice, or in magazines targeting teens, as previous studies have shown that teenagers are more receptive to ads containing celebrity endorsers. However, it is somewhat surprising that no celebrities were used in ads run in general news magazines such as Time and Newsweek, considering that these publications generally contain ads for national brands. the low use of celebrity endorsers in women s shelter magazines was also unexpected, however, this may be due to the nature of the products/services advertised in these publications, which often include household and food items. additional insight into the use of celebrities in magazine advertising comes from findings regarding their use in relation to product/service categories, as well as the type of celebrities used as endorsers for different product categories. the use of celebrity endorsers was highest for ads promoting media products/services (music, dvds, movies) and athletic products, as 20% of the ads in these categories utilised a celebrity. these results 383

16 InternatIonal Journal of advertising, 2013, 32(3) are consistent with the high use of celebrities in sports publications as well as magazines targeting teens (which often contain ads for movies and music). other product categories where the percentage of ads containing a celebrity endorser exceeded 10% include fashion/apparel, cosmetics/personal care, and jewellery/ accessories. the use of celebrities was very low in advertising for financial services, business products/services, pharmaceuticals, consumer electronics and food products, which explains the low percentage of ads containing celebrities in magazines that contain ads for these products and services. also of interest in this study are the findings regarding the type of celebrities used by marketers in magazine advertising, and the basis for their using them. the four main types of celebrity used in the magazine ads analysed were actors/actresses, athletes, entertainers and supermodels. Moreover, their use was dependent on product category, which in turn leads to differences in their prevalence across different types of publication. actors/actresses and supermodels were the most commonly used types of celebrity for cosmetics/personal care items, while entertainers, along with actors/actresses, were used most often for fashion/apparel. the use of these types of celebrity endorser for the two product categories is the reason for their being the primary form of celebrities appearing in fashion, teen, entertainment and women s shelter magazines. It is likely that marketers use celebrities more in ads that appear in these types of publication, as fashion, teen and entertainment magazines tend to reach a younger audience that may be more influenced by celebrity endorsers. a study by Chan and Prendergast (2008) of young people aged living in Hong Kong found that peer communication and susceptibility to peer influence were positively related to engagement in social comparison. they also found that those who had a strong motivation to view advertisements were more likely to adopt celebrities as role models and to imitate them. In turn, both social comparison and imitation of celebrity models were positive predictors of materialism. as expected, athletes are the types of celebrity used most often as endorsers for athletic products, accounting for their dominance in sports magazines. However, it is interesting to note that athletes were also used as endorsers for other product categories, including fashion/apparel, media and jewellery/accessories. their use in magazine ads for these types of product reflects the fact that the popularity of high-profile athletes often transcends sport, and they are viewed as effective endorsers for a variety of products. for example, watch companies such as rolex, omega and tag Heur use high-profile athletes such as tiger Woods, Maria sharapova, roger federer and other sports icons as brand ambassadors. additional insight into the use of celebrity endorsers comes from the findings regarding the basis for their use. the results show that the primary reason for using celebrity endorsers in magazine advertising was based on the source attractiveness characteristic of popularity/likeability. Physical attractiveness was the second most prevalent basis for their use, followed by expertise. the use of celebrities based on their popularity is most common for fashion/apparel and cosmetics/personal care products along with ads for media (music/movies). the use of celebrities based on their physical attractiveness occurred primarily for cosmetics/personal care items, while their use based on expertise occurred primarily for athletic products. 384

17 CeleBrItY endorsers In MagaZIne advertising the findings from this study are consistent with theorising and research regarding the most effective ways to use celebrity endorsers. for example, one of the most prevalent paradigms for researching the use of celebrity endorsers is the product match-up hypothesis, which maintains that the congruence of the fit between the celebrity and the product being endorsed is a key determinant of their effectiveness. this study clearly suggests that marketers take the match between the celebrity and the product into account when using endorsers in magazine advertisements. for example, athletes were used to endorse athletic products, supermodels and actresses were used to endorse cosmetics and personal care items, and actors/actresses and entertainers were the most prevalent celebrity endorsers for fashion apparel. additional support for the match-up concept comes from the basis of use of celebrities in the magazine ads analysed. for example, the use of athletes was based primarily on the source characteristic of expertise, which suggests that marketers of athletic products view them as a good fit and use their expertise to communicate the quality of the athletic products they are promoting. the use of celebrity endorsers for cosmetics/personal care products was based on the source characteristic of attractiveness, including both popularity/likeability and physical attractiveness, while their use in fashion apparel ads was based primarily on popularity/likeability and, to a lesser degree, on attractiveness. Cosmetics and personal care items, as well as fashion apparel, are product categories where image is important and the use of a celebrity endorser can be an effective way to enhance the image of a brand. It should be noted that the effectiveness of a celebrity endorser for products such as cosmetics/personal care items, fashion apparel and jewellery/accessories does not have to be based on his/her physical attractiveness. Many of the celebrities were used based on their popularity/likeability in ads for these types of product as well as others. However, celebrities were often used for their physical attractiveness as well. Cosmetics and personal care products also often use celebrities such as actors/actresses or supermodels to capitalise on their physical attractiveness, which makes them a good fit for these brands. the reliance of marketers on attractive celebrities is consistent with the generalised advertising principle that the physical attractiveness of a communicator is important for products that consumers purchase to make themselves more attractive. Based on a review of the celebrity endorsement literature, erdogan (1999) concluded that there is no doubt that attractive celebrity endorsers enhance attitudes towards advertising and brands, although their impact on purchase intentions is less clear. However, it does appear that advertising practitioners view physical attractiveness as a valuable information cue when choosing a celebrity endorser (Patzer 1985). the results of this study provide insight into the prevalence of use of celebrities in ads appearing in magazines, which is still one of the major forms of advertising media, and the ways in which they are used. the findings should be of interest to both academic researchers as well as practitioners as there has long been strong interest in the effectiveness of celebrity endorsers among both groups. However, it should also be noted that the use of celebrities in advertising is not as prevalent as many might think, which begs the question of why they are not used more. one of the reasons the use of celebrity endorsers 385