Abstract
Marketing analysis of the cars and celebrities industry: McCracken (1999) defines a celebrity endorser as any individual who enjoys public recognition and who uses this recognition on behalf of a consumer good by appearing with it in an advertisement?. A celebrity endorser can come from a wide range of backgrounds. He may be a film star, T.V personality, sports star, politician or even a cartoon character such as bugs bunny and Mickey Mouse or a dead celebrity like James Dean. Using celebrity endorsers is becoming increasingly popular as a form of building a brand's profile and image. Shimp (1998) approximated that in 2000, 25% of all advertisements in America used a celebrity endorser. U.K. company's uses of celebrity's are not too far behind when it comes to this phenomenon, with Erdogan et al (2001) suggesting that one in five marketing communication campaigns in the U.K feature a celebrity. It is now thought that 20% of all advertisements in the U.K. feature a celebrity endorser, while it America this figure goes up to 25% while In Japan this figure jumps up to an overwhelming 75% of all print and television advertisements.
