Page 42 - Seniors Today Dec 2019

Once Upon A Time | Advertising

How Celebrity

Endorsements

have Evolved

Prabhakar Mundkur looks back at
stars who promoted products, and
the varying reactions over the years

Lux was perhaps the first brand to be launched with a
celebrity endorsing it
When Lux was launched way back in 1924 Earlier, endorsing brands and their advertising
in the US, perhaps it was the first brand to be was an easy source of income for celebrities.
launched with a celebrity endorsing it. Five And an easy way to get attention and credibility
years later the brand was launched in India with for brands. In the early days of celebrity
Leela Chitnis as its first brand ambassador. endorsement, it didn’t really matter what
Lux has never looked back. Its positioning of product the celebrity was endorsing and if there
the ‘beauty soap of the stars’ has been so solid was a natural fit between the celebrity and the
that it stays with the brand 95 years later. product. As long as the ad just drew attention
In those days two subsequent world wars had because of the celebrity featured in the ad.
poured gloom over the general populace. People Doris Day for example endorsed Harvester road
went to the movies to cheer up and escape from rolling equipment. Hardly a product/celebrity
the depression. Consumers felt that they gained match.
status when they bought a product endorsed One of the nagging marketing questions that
by a star. Movie stars those days were put on has been asked over the last few decades has
a pedestal and there was distance between the
star and the average consumer. Glamour was
defined as the magical or even unreal charm
or beauty attached to a celebrity. In contrast
glamour has now become more popular and
the star is less on a pedestal than ever before.
Stars are accessible both on social media and
traditional media and we have a constant
peekaboo into their lives through the news.
Glamour no longer has the aura and the mystery
of yesteryears.
Celebrities were good for business. And some
celebrities got inextricably linked with some Even willing suspension of disbelief may have been
brands. We have come a long way since then. stretched with Doris Day endorsing road rolling
equipment
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