Investigating the Effect of Celebrity Endorsements in Advertising on Consumer Attitudes toward Advertising

The use of celebrities as the endorsers of products and services on television, radio, billboards, and advertising campaigns of magazines are increasing. Nowadays, the use of these people in advertising is considered as a part of organizations cost in order to promote sales of their products. The main objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of celebrity endorsers on consumers’ attitudes toward advertising. In this research, the effect of characteristics of celebrity endorsers such as physical attractiveness and appearance, expertise, congruency with product and trustworthiness on consumers’ attitudes toward advertising were studied. The present research is an applied research in terms of objective and descriptive-survey (correlational type) in terms of data collection. Statistical population of the research consists of all consumers of those products that celebrity endorsers were used for them in advertising in Bushehr city. Furthermore, the research sample size was estimated to 384 persons using available sampling method. Moreover, data were collected using questionnaire and were analyzed using structural equation modeling (partial least squares method). Results of the research showed that dimensions and characteristics of celebrity endorsers such as physical attractiveness, trustworthiness, and expertise have a significant and positive impact on attitude of consumers. However, the significant and positive impact of congruency between celebrity and advertised product on consumer attitudes toward advertising was not confirmed.