When a celebrity endorses…

Celebrity endorsements increase the demand for a product.

The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) has said that celebrity endorsement can alter a woman’s brain activity and advertisers have picked up on this trend.

A Dutch team scanned the brain activity of 24 women while they looked at pictures of celebrities as well attractive but non-famous individuals wearing certain shoes.

The women were presented with 40 pictures of famous and non-famous women who were wearing the same footwear and who were thought to be similarly attractive. When a celebrity was seen, the team noticed heightened activity in the medial oribitofrontal cortex but the same was not seen when a picture of a non-celebrity (wearing the same shoes) was seen.

Writing in the Journal of Economic Psychology, they suggested that this activity links the celebrity with the product in a part of the brain associated with feeling affection. Moreover this link could be rapidly recalled.

“The enhanced memory performance for items that were encoded in the context of a famous individual can neither be explained by increased attractiveness of the celebrity nor by a higher level of perceived expertise, but only by the persuasiveness of fame itself,” wrote lead author Mirre Stallen of Erasmus University.

However, contrary to expectations, the number of women saying they would go out and purchase these shoes did not differ significantly between celebrity and non-celebrity photographs. But researchers stress that  this could call for a long term impact, even if it did not manifest itself as an immediate desire to buy.

Manufacturers have made the most of this trend and pay huge sums of money to celebrities to endorse their products. The latest (and perhaps strangest) celebrity brand ambassador is Malaika Arora Khan for Zandu Balm. Khan appeared as Munni in item song “Munni Badnaam Hui” in the Bollywood blockbuster, Dabangg, and referred to Zandu balm in one of its lines. The company filed a legal case against the song which resulted in Khan becoming the face of Zandu balm along with Telugu star Junior NTR.

A source told DNA, “The legal suit slapped by the makers on Zandu Balm on Arbaaz Khan, who produced Dabangg, the film which had the song, led to a compromise where they agreed that Malaika would finally endorse the product.”

Khan, who regained her lost fame with “Munni”, said that it was only fair that she should endorse the product. “This song has become an anthem on the dance floor and the line with Zandu Balm makes people go crazy. It’s only fair that we endorse the product.”

However, the Telugu star had a different reason for accepting the offer. He told the tabloid, “This endorsement made sense to me. Also, I get to share screen space with one of India’s hottest stars. I’d have been a fool to have rejected this offer.”

WITH ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM THE HINDUSTAN TIMES

Some celebrity endorsed products

Faisal Qureshi - Ufone

Junaid Jamshed - Lay’s

Shah Rukh Khan - Fair and Handsome

Kareena Kapoor - Firdous Cloth Mills

Atif Aslam and Shahid Kapoor- Clear shampoo

Jal and Noori - Wall’s Cornetto

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2010.