The Aftermath of Celebrity Scandals on Endorsement

Abstract

Celebrity Endorsers signed on by Companies to endorse their brands which has become a dominate phenomenon in recent years are sometimes plaque with scandals which mar the beautiful contract between the two parties. The purpose of this article is to provide a policy direction statement as a guide for decision making to equip Managers with the right tools to apply in the event of CE scandals so that the aftermath can be manage very well for business to run as usual. The introduction of Celebrity Endorsement (CE) makes it possible for Companies to engage Celebrities as brand endorsers for its products and services. The expectations of companies are that celebrities with their large followers through persuasive powers will attract customers to the brand in question. But then some of these contracts do not live up to their expectations and fall short because of scandals befalling these Icons.  The study sought to find out the aftermath of these Celebrity Scandals, how both parties react to the contract and the consequential actions required of them. The study use top managers of both private and public sector companies in the economy, these companies were surveyed in Accra where all Companies, Ministries, Institutions and Departments have their Headquarters located and more so this is where such decisions are made. The study used Analysis of variance to test if factors have individual or joint influence on the response variable.

The study revealed that the aftermath CE scandals have serious business implications on communication (adverts), the contract and the brand image. The article further showed that the aftermath of Celebrity scandals is worth evaluating to equip Managers with the right tools to apply in the event of a scandal befalling a CE. Thus from the study one can conclude that Celebrity scandals do not necessary ‘boils down’ the company, but has a rampaging effect on communication, the contract, brand image and the CE himself or herself.

Keywords: Scandals, Celebrity, Endorsement, Aftermath.