Public tired of celebrities

Written by Richard Siddle

Thursday, 14 August 2008

You can't open a magazine or newspaper at the minute without a picture of some celebrity popping up in an exotic location supping on an expensive cocktail or knocking back the Champagne.

But, it seems, these publications are missing the public's mood, if a spate of recent research is to be believed that we are all getting bored of those in the public eye promoting or being seen to back their favourite alcoholic drinks brand.

Be it George Clooney swooning away with a bottle of Bacardi-Martini, or Gordon Ramsay's cracked face staring down from a billboard pleading with us to buy some Gordon's Gin. It is estimated one in four adverts currently has some sort of celebrity endorsement, which is
more than double the number of 10 years ago. So, perhaps, it's more a case of overkill than actually not connecting with the celebrity link. Getting a big name behind a big brand can do wonders for its profile. Can Walkers crisps risk cutting its ties with Gary Lineker now he is so
synonymous with the brand's advertising?

Celebrity link-ups work both ways. Would Peter Kay have become such a household name if he had not laid the groundwork with that series of genuinely funny John Smith's adverts a few years back? And is the John Smith's brand seen as edgy and as different now as it did when Kay was part of its advertising? Scottish & Newcastle UK insists the massive uptake in sales was down to the quality of the beer and the investment it made in the quality of the drink, rather than the money it put behind Peter Kay, but I'm not so sure.

It's not just straightforward advertising where drinks brands are playing the endorsement game. Product placement in film, and on television, is becoming omnipresent and while Daniel Craig may not be smoking in the next Bond film, rest assured he will be reaching out for a bottle of Smirnoff at some stage.

And who can forget the greatest celebrity endorsement of them all? Leonard Rossiter using Cinzano Bianco to clumsily charm Joan Collins in the 1970s. That's one link up that was arguably more memorable than the drink.

Richard Siddle is Editor of Harpers Magazine