Does Gender in Celebrity Endorsed Advertisements Influence Audience Perception? A Study of University of Ghana Students
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Date
2021-04
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Publisher
University of Ghana
Abstract
One of the exciting ways of telling stories about brands is by leveraging celebrity fame, admiration
and love to enhance effective communication. This strategy is called celebrity endorsement. It has
become a reliable formula with which brand communicators break through the clutter of many
advertisements and other similar promotional communications to reach their targets. This study
set out to investigate implications of gender in celebrity endorsed advertisements. Based on
assumptions of the source credibility model and the match-up hypothesis model, a 2×3 factorial
within-subject experimental design was adopted to test participants’ perception of gender effects
in celebrity endorsed advertisements. The following findings were revealed: Gender of a celebrity
endorser has consequences for advertisement believability depending on the nature and gender of
the advertised product. In addition, the study saw that respondents’ perception of a match between
celebrity endorser gender and product gender increased advertisement believability. Moreover, the
researcher discovered that even when the gender of the endorser and the product were inconsistent,
participants still perceived a good fit and this resulted in a favorable evaluation of the
advertisements. Informed by these findings, the study concluded that a negative match between an
endorser’s gender and a product’s gender does not necessarily lead to a negative or positive
evaluation of the endorsement. Actually, what matters is whether audiences perceive a fit. Thus,
audiences’ perception of endorser gender and product gender fit directly relates to a favorable
assessment of the endorsed advertisement. Based on these conclusions, the researcher suggested
that future studies should look more into factors which inspire audience members’ definitions of
endorser gender and product gender fit.
Description
MPhil. Communication Studies
Keywords
Communication, Celebrity, Gender effects, Endorser gender, Advertisement