This article explores ‘downward celebrity migration’, that is, when a celebrity enters a field that is less legitimate than their field of origin. It does so by studying the case of Lucía Etxebarria, ...a Spanish literary celebrity who participated in a celebrity reality TV show (Campamento de Verano (‘Summer Camp’)) in 2013. Using Bourdieu’s concepts of field and capital, this article analyses the ambiguous hierarchical position that Etxebarria occupied in the programme and how she was evaluated according to the specific rules of reality TV: authenticity, ordinariness, performance and submission to the programme’s authority. Etxebarria’s presence in the programme stirred up a heated debate about social, cultural and fame hierarchies, and she became the target of attacks that tried to undermine her symbolic capital through personal humiliation.
On the basis of the sociopolitical legitimacy perspective, we examine how firms respond to the celebrity pressure as well as the underlying mechanisms. We argue that the pressure associated with ...having a celebrity owner/leader will push firms to undertake activities that “bridge” with stakeholders by engaging in corporate giving while at the same time buffer against them by revealing less information through earnings management. The extent to which a firm engages in such maneuvers varies with the level of social and political pressure from stakeholders. Our hypotheses were supported by an analysis of 297 publicly listed Chinese firms whose owners had recently been included in a list of China’s richest people. The findings enhance our understanding of the sources of celebrity pressure and extend the research on celebrity and legitimacy management.
The global market capitalisation of bitcoin has exponentially increased in recent years and there are concerns that the current prices of bitcoin do not reflect the true and fair underlying value of ...this particular type of digital asset. Applying Cue utilisation theory and signalling theory, and using a panel data on bitcoin prices from Bloomberg between 1st November 2019 and 31st May 2021, we examine the association between celebrity and government endorsements and volatility in bitcoin prices. We find that positive celebrity tweets and positive government sentiments towards bitcoin are significantly positively associated with positive changes in its prices. Our findings imply that although celebrity endorsements may cause a temporary ‘exponential rise’ in bitcoin prices, investors need to carefully diversify their portfolio to maximise their risk–return relationship.
This study examines how the fandom of pop star Taylor Swift negotiates her ‘political’ awakening, after politically coming-out via Instagram in 2018. When Swift announced her vote for two Democratic ...senators, (international) media and her fandom considered it controversial. Swift, unlike many other pop-singers, had never publicly expressed her political views, until 2018. Yet, doing so put her on the map as a potential celebrity politician (CP): a celebrity who is fighting for a particular interest or certain political outcome, while holding a certain political influence over an audience. By scrutinizing how her fandom, the “Swifties,” deal with their idol’s political revelations, this study offers a granular insight into the intersection between celebrity, fandom, and political culture. Drawing on a content analysis of fan-interviews and online comments, this study illustrates how fans negotiate Swift’s transition from popstar to CP. It demonstrates how fans consider Swift’s political coming-out: On the one hand, they think it is a potential career-strategy of Swift, to lift her persona from singer to strategic “business” woman. On the other hand, the fans consider it a “must” for pop stars in today’s political climate to express where they stand politically. This discussion highlights that the how of Swift’s message, and not just the what or why, are of importance in understanding her position as a CP. Therewith, this study illustrates how fans make sense of today’s politics through the celebrity persona—potentially putting an even greater burden on the shoulders of today’s stars.
The notion of self-branding has drawn myriad academic responses over the last decade. First popularised in a provocative piece published in Fast Company, self-branding has been criticised by some on ...theoretical, practical and ethical grounds, while others have endorsed and propelled the idea. This article considers how and why the concept of self-branding has become so prevalent. We contend that it parallels the growth of digital technology (particularly social media) embedded in the current political climate: neoliberal individualism. Another objective here is to imbue the concept of self-branding with a marketing perspective and show how the 'celebrities' of self-branding manifest at a marketing media nexus distinct to the opening decades of the twenty-first century. Building on literature from mostly media and cultural studies, this critique sees self-branding as a distortion of key branding principles that has obvious implications for its practitioners and advocates. The article shows that, despite inherent tensions and problematic ironies, self-branding persists through the rise of Social Media Influencers; we consider three of these whose fame and following was achieved via the practices and phenomena under consideration.
When consumers become fans of celebrities, they can form intense emotional attachments that resemble a kind of love. Althoughthe love felt for celebrities is based on one-sided parasocial ...relationships, fans nevertheless experience a trauma that they consider to be very real when these illusory relationships end. We explore how fans manage and perform their break-up with a beloved celebrity brand following public allegations of wrongdoing. Building on Giddens’ theorization of loveshock – which encapsulates thedisorienting after-effects of falling out of love – we propose the new concept ofpara-loveshock. Para-loveshock is performed socially and discursively through three fan practices: grief enfranchisement; flagellation; and indignation. Recognizing how fans perform and legitimize their trauma through these practices helps to sensitize managers to the importance of consumer identity work following celebrity transgressions. This has implications for how damage control efforts are planned and how managers engage with fans when responding to celebrity transgression.
The purpose of this study is to empirically assess the mediating effects of the impact of the perceived image of celebrity endorsers on tourists’ intentions to visit, using celebrity-endorsed print ...advertisements for travel destinations. The results indicate that celebrity endorsers have a significant impact on people’s attitudes and visit intentions, thus verifying the mediating effects of this variable. The study also provides clues to what extent celebrity-endorsed advertisements differ from nonendorsed advertisements and explores such differences in terms of destination match-up between native and nonnative celebrity-endorsed advertisements.
Purpose
Celebrity-branded products constitute a brand extension growing phenomenon. Authenticity may explain why some of these offerings are successful despite low perceived fit, a traditional ...measure for brand extension acceptance. The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a framework based on the meaning transfer model that depicts the effects of brand extension authenticity, brand extension fit and idol attachment on the valuation of such offerings. An exploration of both functional and hedonic extensions is provided to control for product-type variables.
Design/methodology/approach
Scenario-based survey data from a general population (n = 646) was collected and analyzed with ordinary least squares regressions.
Findings
Brand extension authenticity is a significant antecedent of brand extension success in both product types, and brand extension fit is the most relevant antecedent only in functional extensions. Idol attachment exerts less influence than fit and authenticity in the functional extension. However, its relevance considerably improves in the hedonic extension.
Originality/value
A better understanding of consumers’ responses to celebrity brand extensions is essential to the branding literature. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to consider brand extension authenticity as a predictor of celebrity brand extension success and advances our knowledge of consumer behavior in relation to celebrities as brands and their products as brand extensions. The conceptual and empirical relevance of brand extension authenticity is demonstrated, highlighting its predictive power when compared with brand extension fit and idol attachment in a celebrity brand extension model, and a boundary condition related to product typology is uncovered.
ABSTRACT
The authors assess the extant research in the area of celebrity endorsement and point out the need for continuing research in celebrity marketing. Suggestions for future research are made in ...a wide breadth of areas, spanning from celebrity endorsements to novel areas of celebrity branding. The authors propose three celebrity‐branding strategies and discuss the factors that may influence their effectiveness. Other areas for future research in celebrity marketing that are discussed include ethical marketing to vulnerable consumers and social marketing. The authors conclude with suggestions regarding theories and methods that can be used for future research in celebrity marketing.
Drawing on stimulus-organism-response theory, the current paper was an investigation of the associations among a celebrity endorser's credibility and brand affection, self-brand connection, and ...purchase intention along with how parasocial relationships moderate these emotion-based associations. Data from 299 Korean millennials were tested applying structural equation modeling and multi-group methods. The findings indicated that celebrity endorser's credibility positively correlated with brand affection and self-brand connection and that they were in turn, associated with purchase intention. Furthermore, both brand affection and self-brand connection fully mediated the impact of celebrity endorser's credibility on intention to purchase. Parasocial relationships moderated the influence on self-brand connection but not on brand affection. More precisely, the impact on self-brand connection was stronger with more parasocial relationships. The theoretical and practical contributions arising from these results are discussed.
PDF
