Post #6: The Celebrity Factor in Advertising.
Ads are used to sell a product to the masses, hopefully, it will tell them what it does and/or how it works. Sometimes the ads need help in convincing people. So companies get someone else to sell for them. Companies use celebrities to help sell a product because they have more prestige than the company themselves.
In two ads, (both from 1925) a person that is more famous than the “Average Joe” is used to push a product. The people are quoted liking the product. In Pond’s Extract ad, a Queen says “beauty can be thoroughly guarded bye Pond’s Two Creams.” Someone that wants to be as beautiful as this queen want to use the products she uses to try to be like a queen. In the Lux soap ad, the “Cabinet babies,” (children of the Secertay of Labor in 1925) are deemed as “Lux babies” because all of their clothes are washed in Lux soap. Also, Mark Twain is quoted that his suits are “as white, and clean, and pure, and soft as swan’s down.” People of the time want to use what products celebrities use so they can be like them. All that is really different today is that “celebrity” has a broader definition.
Unfortunately for ad agencies of today, some people are wise to the fact that they hire celebrities to say whatever they are paid to say. Sometimes, they choose a “real life customer” to advocate a service, though some people suspect that these are no name actors doing this for money. In this Geico ad, they choose to blend the best of both worlds and have both a celebrity and a normal person, the normal person speaking normal English, while the celebrity elaborates in some weird exaggeration. Sometimes, ads will stick with the traditional celebrity angle, like this ad for Cup Noodles, run only in Japan. As opposed, to stating that they use this product, which would obviously be scripted, the celebrity now appears in commercials to just be there because a normal person might not give the right “image” for an item. What if it was some no name American lifting the huge tea kettles in the Cup Noodle commercial? Then the consumer may not be able to identify with what is being sold.
April 3rd, 2007 at 8:43 am
The amount of information in your post helped relate your thesis well. The use of examples from both times period, created a clear line in how advertising has worked for years. Celebrities are very influential in selling any given product. I saw two areas you could have worked on a little more. I think your post could have been a little bit longer with more of your opinion on this subject. Also, just the small mistake in copyinig the paragraph twice. Besides that i think your post was good.
April 3rd, 2007 at 9:13 am
You made some good points in your post about how if someone sees someone famous or that is well-known using a certain product that people will want to use that product to. So I like the ads you gathered and the points that you made about them. I thought you did a good job of pointing out your facts.
I thought you could have written a lot more and had more ideas to support what you were saying and talked about your ads more. You only seem to just talk about them briefly instead of going into detail about them. This is just something litte, but besides having the same paragraph twice, I thought the structure of the post needs to be worked on. You just seem to combine all your ideas into different paragraphs without having any structure that is followed. Just thought you should work on that. Otherwise not a bad post.
April 3rd, 2007 at 11:48 am
I fixed the glitch of the double paragraph, thanks for pointing that out.
April 3rd, 2007 at 3:30 pm
I am on the border, I think your thesis is strong, it is actually a really good thesis but you didn’t really support it at all, maybe I am looking at it too literally but you don’t really show how the celebrities used are more “prestigious” than the companies they are working for, I think you could have worded your thesis more appropriately for your body of information. I also think that you really had no ending, I mean it’s very abrupt, you didn’t seem to wrap up your ideas or relate the two paragraphs back to eachother.
I think overall it is good, it is well written and the information is mostly sufficient, just lacking in conclusion.
April 3rd, 2007 at 5:00 pm
I have to agree with the above statement. I am not really sure how I feel about your post. Your thesis was well written and clear, but I am a little confused by the examples that you provided. The example made sense and are clear, but I think you could have used different ones that the class could relate to easier. All and all I think that your post was well written and it show that you put an effort into it. Good Job.
April 4th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Your post contains good proofs which support your argument. It’s true that celebrities do influence what products people buy. The advertisements you used were good in getting your point across. I also think that the post was a bit short and you could have written more about the topic. Also, I agree with the other comments that the ending conclusion was weak, there needed to be something to tie everything together instead of just ending it without really concluding your thoughts at the end.
April 4th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
I agree with you that celebrities can be more convincing than the company themselves. This is especially true because of the fact that people generally are skeptical of big business companies. In my opinion, when it comes to selling a product, companies care about their profits way more than their customers. Thus, using a friendly familiar face to sell the product can make a big difference. I thought that your comment about people wanting to be as beautiful as the queen was strong for your argument, but you definitely could have elaborated your thoughts.
I felt that as your post went on, you began to lose focus of what you were trying to argue. From your thesis, I expected you to give me reasons why celebrities are more convincing than the company. Other than the Pond’s Extract ad, It seemed like you were just listing ads that had celebrities, rather than explaining how they are proof that celebrities are convincing. For example, from your post alone, I don’t know how the celebrities in the GEICO ad are useful in selling the product. With regard to the Cup Noodle ad, I don’t know what you mean by the “the consumer may not be able to identify with what is being sold.” This was a terrible place to end your post because it just left me confused about that you were trying to prove. Your post had potential but it lacked evidence, and the conclusion was nonexistent.
April 4th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
I agree with your thesis that companies use celebrities to market their products because these people are higher up in the social order than most people watching the advertisement. This type of marketing works because most people want to be higher up on the social ladder and they may think that the people who are higher up know more than they do. I think that the new type of advertising that companies are doing by having normal people talk about their products is mildly irritating because it is beginning to be overused. I think you did a very good post over all.
April 4th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
I can relate very easily to your post and I completely agree that celebrities do help greatly in the selling and promotion of many products by many different companies. I too am a victim of these campaigns. If a celebrity I like is using and encouraging use of a product, I would definately concider buying it.
I found it interesting that even in 1925 (one of your sources) they used “celebrities” like the queen to sell products. You did a good job using evidence from both past and present. However, in your geico example, I believe that is used mostly for humor. The celebrities they use in those commercials are not very famous A-list celebrities that people are obsessed with. And I do not feel that they sell more insurance by having them on the ads.
Your thesis was strong, but there was no real big introduction and there was no closing what-so-ever. It just kind of ended. I too am confused by “the consumer may not be able to identify with what is being sold.” Perhaps some examples of this would have been good. What comes to mind for me is those proactive commercials featuring Jessica Simpson and Lindsay Lohan and Diddy. Everyone can relate to acne, and to know that those people had it too is comforting in a way.
April 4th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
I am in total agreement with you that companies use celebrities to market their product because celebrities are famous and more prestige. Come to think of it, it is a very brilliant idea and companies make more money than if they just had a normal person on the advertisement. I know if I were to choose between buying a product that advertise’s a famous celebrity and buying a product that doesn’t, I would defiantly choose the celebrity product. That’s just the way it is. Your advertisement’s were very good in getting the point across so very good job with that.
I think that your post is somewhat short. You have a good argument and have good examples, but you really don’t elaborate on these examples. From what I read, there is just one statement after your example. Maybe next time try and explain your example in better detail and why this example proves your thesis. If you did that, it would’ve made your argument and blog post that much better.
April 4th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
I agree with you companies use celebrities to help sell their product. I think it always works. If celebrities show up in an particular advertisement, I trust that company/product more than others. Celebrities are even more influential in cosmetic advertisement. Girls probably think that they will be beautiful as the celebrities in that advertisement if they use that product, and they buy them. Your example of cup noodles advertisement really support your thesis and I like that idea. If Arnold Schwartzenegger was not appeared on that advertisement, it would not appeal to the consumers. The product or company can give a good impression to the consumer just using famous celebrities.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading your post and you post is really great. Bur, it would be better if you have a conclusion paragraph to summarize all your ideas.
April 4th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
I really like your thesis, “Companies use celebrities to help sell a product because they have more prestige than the company themselves.” I think that is so true. People really like follow those celebrities and really want to be like them. No matter what it is. Food, clothes, makeup and car, that makes product become hot items. Celebrities are new type advertising for today. People really like those ads. This is very good post. However, if you can write little more to suppose your thesis, that make this blog even better. Over all I think this is well done post.
April 4th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
I agree with the fact that using celebrities to advertise increases the sales of a product. Our world today is all based on what we see in magazines, which show us famous people and trying to me like them. For example women losing weight to become skinnier and more like a model. So it only makes sense that using a celebrity to advertise something to be sold will bring the customers in. They probably think “oh this famous person uses it, and if I do maybe I’ll be pretty like her.” When even though in reality thats all camera work that makes them look like this. Advertisement companies have to use whatever it takes to make the most profits so if it is using a celebrity and/or selling sex (even to the younger generation) then so be it.
April 5th, 2007 at 3:24 am
Overall I think you brought about a well known topic. It’s interesting the way companies use celebrites to try and sell products. I think your thesis was really interesting and insightful. I always thought about it like people were admiring the celebrites but I think it may be more of just a company trying to get their name out there.
I think you could elaborate a little more. You made really good points but you didn’t use a lot of evidence to back it up. There isn’t really a strong conclusion as well. Maybe make a seperate paragraph and summarize your main points.
April 5th, 2007 at 3:53 am
What I like about this post is that the ad’s they included are differentiated from different time periods including the late 19th and early 20th century. It is easy to follow and the reader can understand what the author is trying to say. I also like how the thesis is being supported by the examples and ads that the author has given. I do agree with the author on how using a celebrity helps increase the sale of products. What I didn’t like about this post is that they didn’t include why chose these certain products or advertising techniques to critique
Reading this post, I disagree on how the post author has answer the question advertising and cultural values in history. The post author doesn’t really answer the question in advertising and cultural values in history. Looking at the ads that the author had and the ads that I had, there was a big difference because they included videos while I had pictures. Also, they had celebrities while I had no celebrities. But the overall ads, there was a similarity because it was both advertisements for products
April 5th, 2007 at 4:46 am
The post did have a lot of material in it but only one sentence explanation with it. I do agree with you that companies do use celebrity to sell their product or services like the Gieco advertisment where they tell the viewers from the begining that they hired celebrities to say the stories for the customers. I also like how you did put comments on your pictures on flicker and it does help to look at a picture a certain way.
April 5th, 2007 at 9:29 am
You have a good contrast of past and present celebrity advertising. The third paragraph in particular in interesting to me as you describe the pitfalls of celebrity advertising, especially with people so jaded to it nowadays.
In the second paragraph, last sentence, you say, “All that is really different today is that “celebrity” has a broader definition.” I wish you had gone a little more into what that means.
April 5th, 2007 at 10:39 am
Although I felt this post was a little short, I like that you recognize humans aren’t entirely ignorant and advertisments have changed over time. You showed this by talking about the geico ad. One thing I felt could have made this point a little stronger was to say that it seems Geico is kind of mocking the adverstisments that exist with celebrities. Also I felt that the blog started off strong, giving examples of ads from years ago but I felt you should have added a few typical ones from today. An example of one I think would have been a good choice is the Orbit commercials, selling gum. The latest one features the boys from the show ‘Jackass,’ doing something stupid in the sand, then the woman shows up saying “dirty mouth? Clean it up.” This is a great example I think because I never would have expected those boys to sell themselves out to another company. It is a funny commercial though. Overall post was a little weak but I felt a great point was made, very clever adding that Geico ad in there, I like that you attempted to make a point with that.
April 5th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
I agree with you companies do tend to choose celebrities as their selling technic. Though I think that it is more than just celebrities. I think it has more to do with picking anyone other than the “average joe.” Commericials use people that us normal people can aspire to be like: whether be someone winning a ton of money or just holding a presitge job position.
Your post was good. I liked how you talked about people having some sort of understanding of what is going on. That is true, people always tend to make viewers seem dumb and spaced out. I think that your ideas are all there, but you need to expand on them a little more. Add more inormation to explain and support your arguement. Good post!
April 5th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Companies do use celebrities to their advantage in advertisement. This is because they want people to buy their products seeing that their idols are using or buying it. However, I don’t think these celebrities really do use these products they are advertising; they are probably just doing it to get paid. Just like you stated, “they hire celebrities to say whatever they are paid to say.” It is obvious that their products will sell successfully knowing that young girls and boys look up to certain celebrities as their role models.
I thought your post was great, acknowledging the fact about how advertisements usually use celebrities to sell their merchandise. I totally agree with this statement, however, I thought your blog was a little short. It could have been improved if you provided more information on why they use celebrities, and concentrated more specifically on a few ads so that you could describe it more. Overall I enjoyed reading your post!
April 12th, 2007 at 11:37 am
I think that you used some good examples for your commercials. Using celebrities to sale products has shown to work out really well. It’s obvious by the amount of kids that wear Air Jordan’s or Brittney Spears’ perfume. I think you had a good thesis and had strong arguments to prove it. I don’t think you prove a good point with your Geico ad with normal people. I think everyone that sees these ads know that they are being paid to say this and probably don’t actually use the company.
April 13th, 2007 at 11:16 am
I could clearly undertand your thesis and your supporting argument. You made good points and used good examples. In todays world much of the celeberties income comes for endorsements and being spokesmen for many products. For example when you think you hanes you think Micheal Jorden, or the weight loss guy Jared, you think subway. Although everybody knows they get paid to say what they say, people still remember certain products if they are assocated with a cleberity. You made good points and used good examples, well done.
April 22nd, 2007 at 5:16 pm
I like this post. I am always baffled how people can actually believe celebrity testimony for certain products. Their job is to pretend to be someone else. I like that you were also able to bring in an advertisement from Japan that show the use of celebrity advertisement overseas. Really good post.
April 26th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Your post did a good job on stating the fact that celebrities are used to sell products to average people. I think that in a way celebrities are “untouchable” to the average person, and to use something that they use will make you a little more like them. I do think that you could of supported your facts a little better and made your post a little longer. Other than that I think you did a good job.