Investigating the celebrity effect: the influence of celebrities on children’s and young adults’ explicit and implicit attitudes to brands

Abstract

Research suggests that as children develop so too does their ability to identify the persuasive intent of advertising, but research examining whether implicit cognitive processes play a part in children’s response to advertising has been neglected, as has the importance of scepticism. This thesis focuses upon one specific advertising technique - pairing celebrities with brands. Studies 1 and 2 presented novel brands paired with either a well-liked celebrity or neutrally rated non-celebrity. Findings demonstrated explicit and implicit preferences for brands paired with a well-liked celebrity. Study 3 used real brands and a scepticism scale. An overall preference for celebrity paired brands was revealed, with scepticism to advertising showing to be important. Studies 4 and 5 examined known (rather than “well-liked”) celebrities. Brands presented alone or paired with a known celebrity were shown, with an explicit preference for brands presented alone being found. Study 6 used well-liked and known celebrities. An explicit preference for well-liked celebrity brands, yet a brand alone preference for known celebrity brands was shown. A small implicit preference for celebrity brands was shown in the known celebrity group, also showing high affect-based scepticism was associated with high implicit preference. Both high accuracy- and affect-based scepticism was associated with lower brand alone scores for the well-liked celebrity condition, whereas findings of the known celebrity subgroup seem to suggest that a known celebrity overrides scepticism. Differences across age groups emerged. Overall this thesis suggests that the celebrity effect is not straightforward – children and young adults respond differently to brands paired with celebrities they have high liking for compared with those that are simply known. Explicit and implicit responses to celebrity brands can differ, and it may be important to consider the distinct effects of both accuracy- and affect-based scepticism on the judgments of children in different age group