An exploratory study on perception of celebrity endorsement in public services advertising

Kara Chan () and Ting Zhang ()
Additional contact information
Kara Chan: Hong Kong Baptist University
Ting Zhang: Hong Kong Baptist University

International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, 2019, vol. 16, issue 2, No 3, 195-209

Abstract: Abstract An exploratory qualitative study was conducted to examine how young adults perceive the mechanism of creation and the influence of celebrity endorsement in public services advertising. Face-to-face interviews were carried out with 29 persons aged 18 to 24 recruited through a quota sampling. Interviewees were asked to recall a government public services advertisement with celebrity endorsement, and report why they found them memorable. Results indicated that the main reasons for finding the advertisements memorable were attributed more to slogans, repetition, and personal relevance than to the performances of the celebrities. Interviewees expected celebrities in PSA to be morally sound. Interviewees perceived strongly that self-interest motivates celebrities to appear in social services advertisements. Based on the results, public services marketers should put emphasis on visual and verbal elements of PSA. Efforts should be made to recruit celebrities that are close to the public. Ficitious characters may be explored in the future as an alternative to celebrity endorsement in the PSA context.

Keywords: Young adults; Social policy; Non-profit marketing; Celebrity motivation; Communication effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12208-019-00225-3 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:irpnmk:v:16:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s12208-019-00225-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/business/journal/12208

DOI: 10.1007/s12208-019-00225-3

Access Statistics for this article

International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing is currently edited by Helena Maria Alves

More articles in International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing from Springer, International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().