Page 79 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 17

Art & Culture

is drawn from this ghoulish scenario.
When the vampire effect occurs, the
celebrity will in other words have
“over shadowed” the product that
he or she is advertising. The atten-
tion will now all be zeroed in on the
celebrity, outshining the product and
the initial purpose of the advert.
Thus, in a way, celebrity endorse-
ment would have overshadowed our
brand image thereby defeating the
whole purpose of using him/her on
our adverts. This is happening on
many countless occasions and the
sales of the product or service will
even drop or remain constant whilst
the popularity of the celebrity how-
ever continues to grow. Sometimes,
it is not the fault of these celebri-
ties, but the marketing team itself
in calling on board people such as
these. Fortunately enough, after
looking at these drawbacks of celeb-
rity endorsement, l will tackle some
tips which the marketing teams can
look into so that they put everything
into perspective over which next
steps to take. For the example of
the vampire effect sucking the life
blood out of the product or service
and all the focus or should l say
spotlight remaining on the celebrity,
dazzling and boggling the minds of

heads of only doing good which effect or the hired gun problem. the customers and resulting in them
sometimes is not the case. Indeed, Now, these two are the downsides to not paying much attention to the
when a company finds itself in a celebrity endorsement because they brand itself; your plan of action will
tricky and sticky situation like that do not work out for the benefit of have back fired. You now have to do
then it’s adequate to say celebrity the brand. Instead they work against some quick thinking and put contin-
endorsement has gone wrong. our marketing efforts. In the same gency plans in action, going back to
This article hereby wants to give vein, they worsen the situation and the drawing board and seeing how
fundamental pointers that the all the hard work put in by everyone you can rectify this little problem.
marketing team should consider will look as if it had been all in vain, Additionally, if that celebrity is
before they rope in, on board these especially the vampire effect, which embroiled in some nasty business
celebrities. I am a big fan of various to me is the most serious amongst that bad publicity might affect your
celebrities in different lines of work the two. brand by association thus affecting
be it singers, athletes or models. At You might be wondering what your sales. This is why some brands
the same time l am a marketer as exactly the vampire effect is, because end up revoking their contracts with
well so l definitely know how it can some of you might presume l am these celebrities, like what happened
be a disaster when both these worlds talking about Count Dracula in the with Mike Tyson who sullied Pepsi’s
collide for a company. This might horror blood sucking movie, of name. Similarly, other celebrities like
cause what is not known by many, which l am not, but the elements of Muhammad Ali and even Robert
which goes by the name the vampire sucking the blood out of the advert Kelly (R-Kelly) were also caught up
in nasty debacles.

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