Do glamour, self-sexualisation and scopophilia influence celebrity endorsement?

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the influence of glamour, scopophilia and self-sexualisation in luxury celebrity endorsement.

Design/methodology/approach

In step 1, an experimental study was conducted with 100 respondents assessing the response towards manipulated print ad stimuli operationalizing the influence (in general terms) of lay out, endorser’s beauty pattern, body language (cool, smile appeal, sex appeal and disruptive), gazing and landscape. In step 2, respondents evaluated their response towards five perfume print ads retrieved from real advertising campaigns with different brand personalities (DKNY, Moschino, Chanel, Gucci and Boss).

Findings

The ideal copy strategy is: a couple of brunette Caucasian endorsers; “close-up” photo; sexy body language; indirect smiling gaze; and urban landscape. Multiple regression models were built for each ad/brand (personality) in order to predict the willingness to pay for a bottle of perfume.

Research limitations/implications

The paper suggests a holistic theoretical framework describing the influence of celebrity characteristics, advertising copy strategy, social-cultural trends and brand variables in the advertising processing.

Practical implications

Advertising copywriters and brand managers must control the role of glamour and the self-consciousness of women seduction power in branding advertising.

Social implications

Glamour, scopophilia or self-sexualisation are three different concepts which have a lot of sociological implications because they influence the way as the society perceive the role of women as endorsers in advertising, but also in other life dimensions.

Originality/value

This paper fills a gap in the literature, since this paper make an innovative analysis of the influence of these recent post-modernist socio-cultural trends.

Citation

Carvalho, C.P. and Azevedo, A. (2018), "Do glamour, self-sexualisation and scopophilia influence celebrity endorsement?", EuroMed Journal of Business, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 86-101. https://doi.org/10.1108/EMJB-01-2017-0003