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Are celebrity endorsements worthless?

3K views 23 replies 22 participants last post by  Dwind 
#1 ·
Are celebrity endorsements worthless?

(CNN) -- When Butler plays Duke for the national championship of college basketball Monday night, you can count on two things with absolute certainty:

1. The television ratings for CBS will fall somewhere within the range of really impressive to enormous.

2. You will see commercials featuring famous professional athletes, doing their best to persuade you to purchase the products they are endorsing.

Which brings us to a seldom-questioned oddity about contemporary life:

What do you think would happen if there was a highly publicized court case, and the defense lawyer asked the jury to acquit the defendant because of the emotional testimony of an eyewitness -- and the prosecutor announced that the witness had been paid a huge fee by the defense?

Would the the jury have any faith in the witness? The witness' testimony would, with good reason, be considered worthless.

Or:

How would you feel if you read an ecstatic movie review that made you want to run right down to the theater and buy a ticket -- and then it was reported that the reviewer had received a large check from the movie studio to make sure he gave the film a rave?

You'd want your money back. You'd realize that the review meant less than nothing. The reviewer's opinion of the movie was based not on genuinely admiring it, but on being paid to make you think it was good. If it turned out that the critic was taking money to say he liked certain films, his days as a reviewer would be over. And it wouldn't matter if he swore to you that he truly enjoyed the movie, and that the money had nothing to do with it. More...
 
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#3 ·
I couldn't care less what a celebrity endorses. I make my own decisions without their input. If I put any stock into what celebs liked, I'd be walking down the street everyday carrying my over bred teacup dog, inside an over sized Couch purse, on my way to my over priced doctor's office for my Botox injection, while reading my Scientology literature......
 
#4 ·
A celeb is a simple human, no better or worse than anyone living in my neighborhood. They usually have one thing they do well that earns them a ton of money ... they play basketball, they sing, or they have large breasts. But they are no more any kind of expert on anything else than anyone living in my neighborhood. If every celebrity would vanish overnight the Earth would revolve just the same.

I base much more of my purchasing decisions on word-of-mouth from folks I know and trust personally. But, apparently, I am in the minority, as there are dozens of celeb magazines clustered around every cash register, companies spend millions on their endorsements, and bunch of folks buy stuff just because someone on TV told them to do so.

This is one of my "pet peeve" subjects. I've known some really great people, and when those folks died there was a tiny funeral, a few words spoken, and few people today even remember. Yet if one of those Hollywood celebs were to die the TV would be saturated with the event for weeks, the magazines would all be running lengthy stories, and yet their greatest lifetime accomplishment was surviving a surgery to double the size of their breasts.
 
#5 ·
Yes, celeb endorsements are completely worthless to me. I think our view on life and priorities are much different in general. Of course there are probably a few rare exceptions. But generally I couldn't care less what they endorse.
 
#11 ·
Exception to rule: Jon Voight
 
#6 ·
Celebs endorse because they are paid to either financially, product wise or both....

I find no validity in anything they say.....

Kinda like some of the guys on youtube.......a year ago they used great gear available to everyone without breaking the bank.....then they got a little popular and companies give them stuff for free and thats what they push.......but would those same items be worth it if they actually had to pay for the product or is there a cheaper but just as effective alternative.........sure they sometimes say something crappy about the odd product to make it look like a valid review or what ever but its BS most of the time.............

I guess it all comes down to a persons perception of whats being presented to them..

just my 2 cents
 
#7 ·
Celebrities are no more qualified to endorse products than they are to endorse eivironmental causes, political causes or anything else. They're paid shills who don't know anything but what whoever pays them tells them to say.
The only thing more disgusting is the way the lamestream media fawn over the celebrities and takes what they say to be indisputable truth, regardless of how rediculous it may be.
 
#9 ·
Would you ask a brain surgeon if you had car trouble?

Would you listen to a electrician if you had heart problems?

Would you ask a mechanic if you needed childcare advice?

Maybe occasionally if you knew they were qualified, but as a whole, why listen to someone that knows little or nothing about 1 field just because they were successful in another? Success in 1 area of life does not dictate success in other areas. Most celebrities got there precisely because they made poor life choices in other areas. I don't understand why people turn to them for serious advice on life matters.
 
#12 ·
I can't even keep their names straight mostly, if that tells you anything about my opinion of "Celebrities".
Celebrity endorsement = Worthless
Friend endorsement = Perks my ears up
My endorsement = Priceless
I just don't endorse anything!! Who would care anyway?? I might make suggestions dependent on the person I am talking to, But no endorsements.
 
#23 ·
Celebrity endorsements do matter if they are done by the right person for the right product. While the hollywood type celebrities have little expertise in anything other than making huge money for pretending they're someone else, a legitimate expert, such as say ... Les Stroud, could have a definite impact on the purchasing decisions of someone looking for a high quality survival knife.

The word "Celebrity" doesn't have to mean it's a hollywodd actor or actress. While none of you probably know who Steve Toburen is, he is considered a bit of a celebrity within the carpet cleaning industry. When Steve Toburen makes a recommendation, people listen a little closer than usual, thus making Mr. Toburen's endorsement of a particular product rather valuable.
 
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