The use of sporting celebrities in advertising and marketing is just another way that companies are now using to sell their products. The reason that companies are now using sporting celebrities in their advertising and marketing strategies is because it installs the belief that certain sporting names will enhance the persuasive powers of the adverts and the company will sell more of its products, as the use of celebrities enhances the amount of attention the advertising campaign receives. This is because sporting celebrities are people that a lot of people look up to and respect, in many cases they are even idolised by certain people. For example David Beckham has a huge following, not only for his footballing talents but also for his image. Companies such as Gillette and Vodafone have attached themselves to the David Beckham image, as successful marketing is all about brand image- no one wants to buy something that isn’t attractive or does not have an appealing quality. By including him in their adverts it installs the belief that David Beckham uses Gillette and is with Vodafone, so if you want to be like David Beckham then you will use these products and services.
The use of sporting celebrities may not necessarily guarantee that the products sell more. For example companies have to be careful over the sporting celebrity they choose. No matter what sporting celebrity that companies use, it sends out values (whether intentionally or not) and ideologies of the company.
For example the use of Vinny Jones in Bacardi adverts could send out the wrong values and ideologies. This is because Vinny Jones has always carried, as some could view, a negative reputation, he has carried this reputation on and off the football pitch. Some of the negative implications that you could associate with Vinny Jones is violence and less than acceptable behavior towards women, as there have even been stories that he has been violent and rude towards his wife and other women. This sort of reputation could easily have a bad effect on the company Barcardi, as some people could see this as Barcardi’s was of promoting the attitude that Vinny Jones is associated with. Obviously the use of Vinny Jones is then a gamble in this advertising campaign, but they as a company see Vinny Jones as an ideal choice of sporting celebrity to promote their slogan, ‘there’s Latin spirit in every bottle”, as Vinny Jones was always a very determined professional footballer.
This essay will explore the use of sporting celebrities in the use of advertising and marketing considering how effective the use of certain names actually is.
A recent advertising campaign that features sporting celebrity is the Gillette advert. In this advert we can quite clearly see David Beckham after he has just used Gillette. The advert plays on the image that David Beckham carries, and in the advert he comes across, as many people would consider desirable, something which a lot of males would like achieve. So this is an effective way in which a company such as Gillette can use sporting celebrities. It is also a good choice as Gillette is associated with its famous slogan “the best a man can get”. This also gives across the ideology that if someone like David Beckham (who can afford anything) uses Gillette then you should.
