Brands need to choose their campaign figureheads more carefully after new research has revealed that meaningless celebrity endorsers such as those by Kerry Katona and Denise Van Outen did little to impress consumers.
On the other hand, the survey by consumer research company Conquest found that the public approved of celebrities in ads provided that they did something for the brand.
More than half of respondents saw Katona as unfit to represent a national frozen food supermarket, but viewed carefully chosen personalities such as Twiggy, Gary Lineker and Lewis Hamilton as complementing the brands they were endorsing.
These names were particularly big hits with consumers as they were regarded as credible and trustworthy.
The report has crystallised the debate in PR circles about the suitability of certain celebrity endorsements following the recent controversy surrounding whether Kerry Katona should remain the face of the supermarket.
The findings show how consumers are savvier than some marketers think and are not taken in by the tactics of shallow marketing campaigns based on the misconceived idea that any old celebrity will sell a product.
And in the case of PR parasite Katona, it is clearly time the marketing team at Iceland realise that its loyalty to the capricious scouser is doing the supermarket chain more harm than good.
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