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Celebrity endorsements have been a thing effectively since the inception of celebrities. Why are those more worthy of people's attention?

AlexandrB 2y ago
They're not. A lot of the internet is now "People Magazine" style tabloid nonsense. Some influencer "reacting" to another influencer getting mad because a third influencer said some controversial political opinion. This stuff isn't new, just packaged differently for a younger audience.
usrusr 2y ago
One key difference is that those celebrities of old were famous for things quite disconnected from the thing they endorsed. And even when it was close (athletes endorsing sports gear, Hollywood beauties endorsing hair products) the "they are getting paid for the endorsement" was still nicely disconnected from what they were faimous for. Most influencers are famous for voicing an opinion on stuff. The stuff they are paid to praise. This seems as if it must be even more obvious, with the fame and the business so well aligned, but somehow this alignment appears to enable the fame to outshine the paid nature, like a person standing between a car's headlights would be perfectly invisible despite getting quite some scatter light on them. When the endorsement is orthogonal to the fame, perceiving it as what it is turns out to be much easier.
chankstein38 2y ago
I've never understood why those worked either. They were _obviously_ paid for their endorsement and appearance in the commercial so why would that make me believe the product is good? Obviously it has worked for people but I've never understood why Shaq shilling some product is shorthand for "it's a good product" to people. I feel like people are really gullible.
- rightbyte 2y ago
  Maybe it doesn't work at any reasonable rate of return and the advertisement sector is mainly a scam?
- brokenmachine 2y ago
  Humans are evolved to be in a small tribe of 50 or so people they know. They see Shaq holding a product, they "know" Shaq, so their brain automatically puts the product into the category of something they've seen someone they know using. How effective this is is a matter of debate. I guess this is why companies are so quick to drop celebrities that do something unpalatable. Because then the product would go into the category of something that someone I don't like uses.

AlexandrB 2y ago

They're not. A lot of the internet is now "People Magazine" style tabloid nonsense. Some influencer "reacting" to another influencer getting mad because a third influencer said some controversial political opinion. This stuff isn't new, just packaged differently for a younger audience.

usrusr 2y ago

One key difference is that those celebrities of old were famous for things quite disconnected from the thing they endorsed. And even when it was close (athletes endorsing sports gear, Hollywood beauties endorsing hair products) the "they are getting paid for the endorsement" was still nicely disconnected from what they were faimous for. Most influencers are famous for voicing an opinion on stuff. The stuff they are paid to praise. This seems as if it must be even more obvious, with the fame and the business so well aligned, but somehow this alignment appears to enable the fame to outshine the paid nature, like a person standing between a car's headlights would be perfectly invisible despite getting quite some scatter light on them. When the endorsement is orthogonal to the fame, perceiving it as what it is turns out to be much easier.

chankstein38 2y ago

I've never understood why those worked either. They were _obviously_ paid for their endorsement and appearance in the commercial so why would that make me believe the product is good? Obviously it has worked for people but I've never understood why Shaq shilling some product is shorthand for "it's a good product" to people. I feel like people are really gullible.

rightbyte 2y ago
Maybe it doesn't work at any reasonable rate of return and the advertisement sector is mainly a scam?
brokenmachine 2y ago
Humans are evolved to be in a small tribe of 50 or so people they know. They see Shaq holding a product, they "know" Shaq, so their brain automatically puts the product into the category of something they've seen someone they know using. How effective this is is a matter of debate. I guess this is why companies are so quick to drop celebrities that do something unpalatable. Because then the product would go into the category of something that someone I don't like uses.