February 22, 2005

Celeb Obsession May Not Lead To Sales

The automatic association between a famous face and a successful
product is over, the Independent reports. Shoppers are bored with endorsement and actually
finding fame a turn-off when it comes to buying a fish slice or a pair
of jeans.
Mintel found 67 per cent of shoppers "unconvinced" or
"uninterested" by celebrity chef ranges. Only 8 per cent said they
would actually buy a celebrity brand - even if the celeb was someone
they "admire or trust".

Mintel research shows that a growing number of people think celebs sign
such deals simply for the money, reducing the impact of the ads.
"Our research shows
a high level of apathy, disinterest and even scepticism towards these
products," says Claire Hatcher, a senior market analyst at Mintel.

The Independent also reports that we may be witnessing (finally) a backlash against the cult of celebrity:

Our former reverence for stars is turning to boredom, disgust and
open hatred. This is best demonstrated by the contrast between the last
series of Celebrity Big Brother and the first, in 2001, which was a
cuddlefest. Jack Dee missed his children, won sympathy and the title.
But last time round, the house was stocked with a coven of
self-destructive and unsympathetic pseudo-celebs we didn’t even love to
hate. The viewing figures for this modern equivalent of a public
hanging were 4.2 million - down almost a million on the previous
series. Meanwhile, Closer, the celebrity magazine that appears to hate
celebs, has been a great success, selling 480,187 copies a week only
two years after its launch. It outsells its fawning, old-fashioned
cousin Hello! by miles, not least by printing embarrassing pictures of
stars with spots and cellulite.

Gone are the days when a famous name could expect adulation to greet
her every sneeze. Minnie Driver, actress-turned-chanteuse, launched her
first album to a chorus of boos from the critics. It is not in the
charts. Tom Weldon, the publisher of a disastrous autobiography by
Natalie and Nicole Appleton, admitted: "I didn’t realise how much
people didn’t like them. We lost a considerable sum of money on that."