Social+Adaptation

__**Physical Attractiveness of the Celebrity Endorser: A Social Adaptation Perspective **__ **by Tiia Lyons ** This article is a research study that was conducted measuring the effectiveness of a good looking celebrity endorser of a product on the consumer regarding “Edge Disposable Razors”. The attitudes of the consumer and their intents to purchase changed with the physical attractiveness of the celebrity endorser. The elaboration likelihood theory was used in the study in order to measure the amount of change in the attitude of the consumer via two ways, the “central route” which is high consumer involvement and the “peripheral route” which is low involvement. The researchers predicted two things using the elaboration likelihood theory. The first hypothesis was that the likeability of the celebrity and the consumer influence would correlate under low involvement (ie magazine articles) and secondly that the attractiveness would correlate positively with consumer influence.

 A group of 43 students were given a list of celebrities and they were asked to rate them on physical attractiveness, likeability and familiarity. Once the medians for these characteristics were assessed, a new group of 200 students were randomly assigned in the study to consumer involvement, celebrity attractiveness, and likability of celebrity. The procedure went that each subject was given two booklets of magazine advertisements with one booklet containing images of ads representing the independent variables (attractiveness and likability) and one booklet with the dependent variables (questionnaires). There were eleven real ads and one fake advertisement depicting pictures of celebrities with products. After reading the booklets the subjects were given a free “Edge Disposable Razor” and asked to answer a questionnaire (dependent variable) on their attitudes on buying Edge Razors and their opinion of the product. Subsequently the subjects were asked questions regarding the fake ad as “manipulation checks” to get response on the amount they recalled in both high and low involvement cases. They were also asked to rate the celebrities pictured in the booklets on attractiveness, likeability and familiarity. The results only showed one significant difference with the attitude questions and that was with attractiveness. The people liked the Edge product more when there was an attractive celebrity endorsing it. Also brand recognition was higher for Edge when there was an attractive celebrity endorser.

 Kahle, Lynn R., and Pamela M. Homer. "Physical Attractiveness of the Celebrity Endorser: A Social Adaptation Perspective." Journal of Consumer Research 954-961 11.4 (1985). Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 7 Oct. 2010.