european journal of social sciences issn: 1450-2267 - EuroJournals

European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 5, Number 3 (2007)
There is a lot of research work done on celebrity endorsement but there is a distinct lack of
research on multiple celebrity endorsement in advertising. Despite the fact multiple celebrity
endorsements are becoming more prominent as compare to single celebrity endorsement advertising
(Hsu & McDonald, 2002). Celebrities have the ability to hold the viewer’s attention and it also help to
penetrate the clutter of the advertising spots (Miciak and Shanklin, 1994). When using more than one
celebrity in a campaign, the consumer association with the product also increases. Hence the use of
multiple celebrities for a product can be beneficial for attracting different target audience (Hsu &
McDonald, 2002). Multiple celebrities may help the advertisers to reduce the boredom and sometimes
the target audience is very wide so multiple celebrities are required to cover that audience (Erdogan &
Baker, n.d). Multiple celebrity endorsements with reference to the low involvement product/services
and high involvement products/services has not yet been explored.
Hypothesis
In the present study on the bases of Social Adaptation theory we develop two hypotheses with
reference to the multiple celebrity endorsement. The basic aim is to find out the effect on consumer
perception, when we have more than one celebrity in low and high involvement product
advertisements.
H1: consumer perception is more positive for multiple celebrities ads compare to single celebrity
ad for low involvement products/services.
H2: there is no significant difference in consumer perception for single celebrity ads and multiple
celebrities ads for high involvement products/ services.
Method
Research Design
The research was conducted using a questionnaire design to understand consumer views on celebrity
endorsement with reference to the high involvement products/services and low involvement products
and services, measuring their attitude toward ad, attitude toward brand and their intentions to purchase
the given product or service.
Four print media advertisements were chosen based on the number of celebrities in them. Two
advertisements contain single celebrity in them while two ads contain more than two celebrities in
them. Two ads, one single and one multiple celebrities were taken from low involvement product ads
while two ads one single and one multiple celebrities were taken from high involvement
products/services.
Each participant of the study was provided with one ad, either single celebrity ad or multiple
celebrities’ ad. Same questionnaire was used to measure consumer perception about single celebrity
endorsement and multiple celebrities endorsement.
Independent variable
Four print media ads were used as stimulus. Two ads from low involvement products/services were
taken one single celebrity Pantene pro v shampoo ad, and one multiple celebrities Lux soap ad with
five celebrities in it. Two ads were taken from high involvement products/services one single celebrity
Warid mobile phone connections ad and one multiple celebrities Ufone mobile phone connection ad
with three celebrities in it.
Dependent variables
To measure young adult perception three variables were studied, attitude toward advertisement,
attitude toward brand and purchase intentions. Information on these variables is presented in table no 1.
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