I most certainly do. In fact, there's hardly a celebrity endorsement that doesn't bug me. It probably has exactly the opposite effect to what was intended when the brand signed up that famous name, at vast expense, to lend his or her face and name to their product.
Do any of us really believe that David Beckham shaves with a disposable Gillette razor? Well, maybe his head, as Brylcreem discovered when that endorsement backfired and their gorgeous star shaved off his hair by mistake!
And wasn't it Gwyneth Paltrow herself who said she didn't really like cosmetics when she signed up to be the face of Estée Lauder? What a drag. They obviously made it worth Gwyn's while to slap on a touch of colour every morning.
All these endorsements would count for a lot more if we knew that the stars in question held a stake in the business they were representing, and there's a suggestion that this might be the direction in which celebrity involvement is moving in order to give the whole business more integrity.
Writing in last weekend's Financial Times, Anna-Marie Solowij referred to a new creature, the “celestor”, who is a celebrity as well as an investor in the particular product being endorsed.
By opening their purse — and probably also their little black book — celebrities bring much more than just their names to the product, Solowij writes.
Take Bono's wife, Ali Hewson, who owns a big share in the ethical beauty brand, Nude. Her job description is quite vague, although her business partner says she's a great asset in meetings with the big department stores in the US. After all, who's going to say no to Mrs Bono?
I like the sound of it. I'm pretty sure L'Oréal's hair colour adverts would be far more believable if SJP was a director of the company and stood to lose some cash if my box of hair dye was a dud.
And if Sharon Stone had owned just the tiniest morsel of the massive Lancôme cosmetic pie, she would have thought twice about putting her foot in it about Chinese earthquake victims and thereby endangering a multimillion-dollar investment in that most lucrative of markets.
Locally, the sole brand that seems to be making intelligent use of celebrity power is Woolworths, which launched its winter fashion campaign this week.
Using a gallery of South Africa's top achievers in sport, the arts, media and business, the campaign is the first effective appeal for South Africans to seize upon the nation, building opportunity that comes with next year's Soccer World Cup.
An international event of this magnitude is the ideal time for us to try and recapture some of the 1994 new-South-African magic, and with its positive parade of role models, Woolies has discovered the art of authentic celebrity endorsement.
By calling on real men and women of substance to represent their brand, they're reminding South Africans of all the reasons to believe in ourselves and what we can accomplish when we put our mind to it.
That's far more exciting to me than an American actress with Walt Disney hair.
Source: The Times
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