The Worst of Endorsement

This week’s blog will be a follow up of last week, discussing the worst endorsements and why they flopped. These will be a couple of endorsements that stick in my head for all the wrong reasons.

The first one that I will always remember is Kate Moss. Moss was dropped from numerous brands after allegations appeared in the press of her taking cocaine. Chanel, Burberry and Gloria Vanderbilt all dropped the star costing her £4 million a year in earnings. As well as this, H&M cancelled their campaign with her after she admitted her drug use and apologised.

Why would brands want Ms. Moss to be the face of their company when she’s on the front page of national newspapers with white powder all over her nose? This is not something people look up to. I do feel sorry for Kate Moss as she was once known as quite admirable but is now portrayed in a completely different light, making it difficult for her to gain back the reputation she once had. However, when you are in the limelight, you should take responsibility that a lot of people look up to you, so any bad decisions you make and the press can get a hold of is going to have a knock on effect to your career. Moss has actually managed to save herself though with companies such as Rimmel and Mango.

Another example of a celebrity getting dropped from an endorsement includes Tiger Woods. Although he’s doing just fine now with still millions to his name, there was a time he was dropped by many companies due to the fact he was having an affair. Gillette was in amongst one of the biggest ones to drop the golfing star during the time of the allegations although they claim that they were just refreshing their brand to continue to be relevant to customers. Convenient timing eh?

Although not this is not an example of an endorsement being dropped, it’s still something that ties into companies and their reputation through celebrities. Abercrombie and Fitch are known for their image of attractive models in their campaigns and as customer assistants and the idea of you are attractive if you wear their clothes. Jersey Shore star, Michael Sorrentino, also known as ‘The Situation’ was offered money by Abercrombie and Fitch for him NOT to wear their clothes. This was because they felt Jersey Shore and the cast wearing their products was damaging their reputation due to being Z list celebrities who were famous through the show which is generally about housemates spending their summer in Jersey and their antics of while they’re there. In a statement released by Abercrombie and Fitch about the situation they stated:

 “We understand that the show is for entertainment purposes, but believe this association is contrary to the aspirational nature of our brand, and may be distressing to many of our fans.”

This shows a desperate attempt of a company saving their reputation and being portrayed in the way the want to be portrayed, buy literally paying the people they don’t want to associate with not to wear their clothes.

My next blog will be about Z list celebrities, such as people from Geordie Shore and reality programme’s who now get paid to promote products on their social medias.

The Best of Endoresment

Back again with everything you need to know about the best celebrity endorsements of all time! This will be a whistle stop tour of a couple of my favourite collaborations and campaigns that have worked with celebrity endorsement.

First up is an all-time classic that everyone loves, David Beckham and H&M. This was arguably so successful because, well, its David Beckham. Quite easy on the eye. However, this use of celebrity endorsement really did help H&M as it encouraged young men who look up to him (which is quite a lot of people really) to buy their products to be like him. Beckham has launched a number of different campaigns with the brand with his first one launching in February 2012. H&M launched the advert at the super bowl for Beckham’s Body wear collection. This was such a success he stuck with the brand further bringing out a ‘modern essentials’ collection last year, launching adverts with Kevin Hart, proving ‘all you need is the essentials’.

Have a look at this advert here: https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTNlQgA5A6A

Beckham success for this campaign in my opinion stems from the fact he’s such a well-loved celebrity in the first place. He’s so focused upon in the public eye along with his famous wife, Victoria Beckham and their three boys and is known for doing charity work. As well as this, the clothes he’s promoting are affordable and in a normal high street shop, making consumers feel like he’s just a normal guy too to be wearing clothes from H&M. When looking for research on why it was so successful, a lot of the comments were purely that David Beckham was in his underwear. Easily pleased. 

Another of my favourite celebrity endorsements are the girls who have endorsed with MAC for limited edition products. These include Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj and Rihanna. These are all inspirational woman that young girls look up to, many of which have taken the opportunity to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS with all profits from Viva Glam going towards charities for this cause. I love this campaign purely because I’m a young girl who looks up to these celebrities. I loved it even more when I discovered where the money goes.

A quote I found from Rihanna about this campaign says - “I think it’s important that young people know there’s nothing wrong with having fun, nobody is telling us to be boring, but we have to be safe. We can’t think of HIV/Aids as being somebody else’s story. It could be any of ours.” This has been a successful campaign because when I hear the words viva glam I automatically think of MAC and the famous faces that go along with it. MAC Viva Glam have raised $380 million, with 100% of this going to towards a fight against HIV/AIDS. I love this endorsement because although they are using famous faces for the brand, it’s not specifically to gain profits for the brand but to raise money for charity.

So there are just a few insights into my favourite celebrity endorsements and why I think they are successful. On my next blog in two weeks’ time I’ll be writing about the worst celebrity endorsements and examples of companies who have dropped their celebrities, so make sure you keep an eye out for that!