(June 23, 2012) Companies
paying celebrities big money to endorse their products may not realize that
negative perceptions about a celebrity are more likely to transfer to an
endorsed brand than are positive ones, according to a new University of
Colorado Boulder study.
Celebrity
endorsements are widely used to increase brand visibility and connect brands
with celebrities’ personality traits, but do not always work in the positive
manner marketers envision, according to Margaret C. Campbell of CU-Boulder’s
Leeds School of Business, who led the study.
“In three
different studies, negative celebrity associations always transferred to an
endorsed brand, even under conditions when positive associations did not,” said
Campbell, an associate professor of marketing. “The overall message to
marketers is be careful, because all of us, celebrities or not, have positives
and negatives to our personalities and those negatives can easily transfer to a
brand.”