Erin Andrews Reebok

With the cost of celebrity endorsement deals reaching astronomical highs, one has to address the effectiveness of such

In the Shamwow commercial, a tan, skinny, salesman in a blue polo stitched with the products title, introduces himself as Vince Offers of Shamwow. Offers’ own association with the company, along with the label of on his shirt, is there to convince the audience, that because he belongs with the company, he knows the product he is selling well and thus, he can be a trustworthy source of information regarding the product. Initially this seems to be a very legitimate appeal, however it should be considered that because he works for ShamWow, he could give a biased sales pitch on the product and make it sound better than it is, making him an untrustworthy source. Another ethos appeal in the advertisement occurs when the Vince wipes his wet arm with the ShamWow towel and says “Olympic divers - they use this towel” the lack of proof or source makes this statement ineffective, just like other appeals in this commercial. During the last few minutes of the commercial, the footage cuts to real life recordings of people giving feedback about the ShamWow. A few of these comments were “I

The ethos appeal is present in the Michael Jordan, LT and Polamalu commercials the most. In the Everything’s an argument textbook, it says, “We tend to accept arguments from those we trust, and we trust them in good part because of their reputations. Three main elements – trustworthiness/credibility, authority, and unselfish or clear motive – add up to ethos” (45). Of course, Nike wouldn’t use any one that had some trouble or were untrustworthy to represent their company. They know better than to include Sammy Sosa and Ray Rice to be representatives; however, someone like Michael Jordan is a great choice because of the influence he has had on many people. Michael Jordan is a role model to many; whereas, Sammy Sosa should not be one because of the illegal actions during his baseball career. He was “unaware” of the fact that he had used a corked bat during a game. Even though all his bats were tested and came back clean, Slammin’ Sammy had jeopardized much of his success from the past. Nike keeps a strong ethos by partnering themselves with famous athletes that everyone has at least heard of. Famous athletes increase their credibility because of the belief that if those athletes use their products then the product must be superior to its competitors. It proves that Nike is a high quality brand. By using famous athletes in their commercials, Nike shows that their products are not just

“People are more likely to pay attention to a TV commercial if one of their favorite players is talking, than they would be if the owner of the company was the star” (Miller). It is the association with the known and likeable character which may attract people to follow celebrity endorsements. It may also be the association with success which the athlete is characterizing. Whatever the case may be, Miller gives tips of what marketing companies look for before persuading a player with an endorsement:

Companies are very selective when choosing a celebrity to endorse their product because they know the person is a great candidate for them to sell their product to the consumers. Before the company signs on the celebrities to endorse their brands, the companies need to make sure that these celebrities meet three basic qualifications.

This organisation specialises in sports apparel and accessories. This sport based business sells items within sports such as Football, Rugby, Golf, Basketball, Cricket, tennis, athletics and pretty much every other sport. However, I feel they are extremely notorious for their very professional and popular football boots. For example, Nike have earned international success and have worked with the likes of Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba, Neymar, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Mario Balotelli, Wesley Sneijder, Wayne Rooney and Landon Donovan in regards to promoting their Football related range of goods. However, in regards to my product, Nike has formed many advertising schemes with players such as Zlatan Ibrahimović (left) and

a. A declining retail consumer market and an overall struggling economy means potential difficulties for UA which offers closely related, non-essential products

Athletes and the sports industry have turned into a multi-billion dollar business annually. Stacked on top of that is that leagues and educational institutions receive multi-million dollar media contracts each year. This is so that broadcasters such as NBC, FOX, and TNT have the rights to broadcast that team or leagues games. The surge of money in the sports industry has led to an influx of agents into the world of agent athletes.

Nike, is arguably the most known brand out there. In the article that is reporting on Nike’s latest campaign, it is not only publicizing Nike, but Serena Williams as well. Nike is receiving the Internet’s coverage of media for free. Although Nike paid for the billboard, they did not pay for all of the publication they are getting from the Internet because of this article and many others like it. If Nike was aware of this happening, which I am sure they were, they picked Serena Williams to feature on their masterpiece because she is in the news often with her recent major wins in tennis. The article does a good job of listing her achievements; in turn this helps Nike out because an amazing and credited athlete is receiving praise from Nike.

The article suggests that money and exposure are key reasons for celebrities to tie their name to a large company that may not be healthy for children, for this reason; one questions the qualities of the celebrity. For example, one can question qualities of a famous athlete that endorses Sprite because soda leads to dehydration and athletes’ focus is often staying hydrated. Next, businesses use celebrities as a marketing strategy to gain attention for the product that the company wants endorsed. This causes the business to spend more money on more influential people leading to the assumption that celebrities are endorsing products that they do not actually use on a daily basis for money. After one is able to think critically about the logistics of the celebrity endorsing the product one can find that it is most likely about being paid or reaching a new

The use of specific athletes in marketing campaigns really began to show promise when athletes like Jordan began wearing their own brands of shoes. The idea to consumers or fans of the NBA that they could wear the same shoes as Michael Jordan, and somehow play like him was an easy sell by Nike. Today it is now common for marketable athletes in almost all sports to wear their own style of shoes, spikes, or skates. An interesting point to make is that through Nike Michael Jordan eventually launched his own clothing line called Jumpman23 that makes everything from socks and underwear to winter coats. Even though Jordan has been retired since 1999 the Jumpman23 company has continued to release a new shoe every single year that are simply called “Jordan 24”, an increasing corresponding number to the number of years the shoes have been produced. The new Jordan shoes still retails at over $150 a pair even though Mike hasn’t stepped on the court in 11 years! After retirement and becoming the CEO of the Jumpman brand Michael Jordan has been able to court other famous athletes from a variety of sports to wear his brand. A few examples of the athletes include Derek Jeter (baseball), Dwayne Wade (basketball), Jason Taylor (football), and April Holmes (track and field). The wide range of athletes in all different sports who now market a brand for arguably the greatest athlete of all time truly shows the money, power, and influence an athlete can experience

“This kind of marketing is misleading and insults the intelligence of the audience (Jozui).” Jozui is explaining that using a celebrity as an endorser provides automatic approval and because of that doesn’t provide much evidence of how effective the product is. However, the consumer should have the ability and knowledge to do research on the product. ¨Am I going to buy the newest SUV because an attractive talk show host gets paid to…(Jozui).¨ Just because somebody is paid to pretend to like a product does not automatically give the product approval. Not everybody would agree with the right to advertise freely however, companies have every right to do

Be diluted easily. (due to competitive sport industry, the brand can be diluted if stops innovating the products)

Celebrity endorsement is a billion dollar industries today (Kambitsis et al., 2002) with companies signing deals with celebrities hoping that they can help them stand out from the clutter and give them a unique and relevant position in the mind of the consumer. According to Solomon (2002), the reasons for using celebrity endorsement involves its potential to create awareness, positive feelings towards their advertising and brand. Research has shown that celebrity endorsement can have an impact on the consumer’s attention, recall, evaluations and purchase intentions (Atkin and Block, 1993), Celebrity endorsement is a widely used tactic in marketing and much research

According to the “Sweatshop Fact Sheet,” Tiger Woods is paid over fifty five thousand dollars a day to be their spokesman. Another famous person that is a spokesman for Nike is Michael Jordan. According to the article “Running Away With the Profits,” (Environmental Action, Academic Search Elite), Michael Jordan is paid twenty million dollars in endorsement fees. Big name sport teams advertise Nike to appeal to the common person.