Factors Transforming Celebrity and Brand Culture Interactions

This essay delves into the dynamic relationship between celebrities and brand cultures, examining the transformations in their interactions. It begins by defining celebrity culture and its connection to consumer interests, highlighting the role of celebrity endorsements in marketing communication. The discussion covers how celebrities, spanning various fields like music, fashion, and sports, attract brands for heightened awareness, and how consumer choices are influenced by celebrity endorsements. The essay explores the evolution of celebrity culture, from early broadcasts to the impact of new technologies, and the rise of celebrity experts in lifestyle and consumer culture. It investigates the tension between celebrity and expert authority, media's role in blurring boundaries, and the influence of celebrity lifestyles on consumption patterns. The essay also discusses the negative aspects of celebrity culture, such as privacy invasions, and the enduring fascination with celebrities in contemporary culture, emphasizing their role as pedagogical tools and cultural trendsetters. The analysis covers the impact of social media and the evolving strategies of celebrity endorsements in a competitive market, concluding with the importance of celebrities in shaping consumer behavior and brand perception.

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Introduction
Celebrity endorsement is a popular means of promotion in marketing communication.
The celebrity culture is a high volume perpetuation of the personal lives of the celebrities across
the globe. Inherently, celebrity culture is tied to the consumer interests, in which the celebrities,
particularly the fame which they have earned, help in becoming the product brands (Zimmerman
& Ayoob, 2004). Culture is something which can be identified physically, in an easy manner but
when it comes to celebrity culture, it exists only as being a collection of desires, of the
individuals, for getting an increased viewing of the celebrities. It is not the celebrities who form
such identifiable or cohesive groups, which they identify themselves with, but the people
following them do the same.
The strategies of celebrity endorsement are competitive in nature and also are saturated in
different brands and products of the competitors. As a result of the high advertisement clutter, no
room is left for actual differentiation in product in the markets; and for this purpose, the role of
celebrities is enhanced as the only differentiation in product is due to the right celebrity being
found (Erdogan, 1999; Keller, 2008). Though, a thing which remains questionable in this
context, is that the celebrity holding the transfer effect, matches up the features of the different
brands, or not. This discussion is focused on highlighting the different factors which transform
the manner in which the interaction between the celebrities and the brand cultures take place.

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Celebrities and Brands
Celebrities can be found in a range of communities and in activities, which include
music, fashion, politics, acting, and sports. The per se “culture” is created upon this becoming a
common knowledge in a particular society that the people have an interest in the celebrity and
that they are enthusiastic about modifying their life in order to take part in the life of the
celebrity. This culture is initially identified through the factors which are out of the celebrities
and later on is augmented by the involvement of the celebrities in the publicly construed culture.
This popularity of celebrities is what makes them attractive to the brands, particularly for the
purpose of brand awareness. The higher the popularity of the celebrities, the more brand
endorsements the get. For instance, in Taiwan, Jay Chou endorsed between eight to ten different
brands in a single year for different type of products (Yang, Lo & Wang, 2014).
Consumer and their choices
Celebrity Culture
The popularity of celebrity culture has a number of phases. The very initial examples of
this include the broadcasts on the TV programs in which the individuals had the capacity of
reaching a far wider audience and group of individuals, which could result in the rise of fame of
such individuals. With the release of newer technologies, there has been a change in the
manipulation of audiences. The individuals, particularly the entrepreneurial ones started to
recognize the financial value for promotion some of the individuals in a purposeful manner, and
this resulted in a consumer approach towards celebrities as being the brands being put forward.
With this, a culture started shaping up where the consumers accepted the celebrities as being a

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part of the society. Along with this acceptance was the tactical and clever marketing, which
perpetuated the celebrity culture in context of the ever changing shifts in the beliefs and customs.
This is the reason why celebrity culture is viewed as being a synonym of the celebrity industry in
which the celebrities are treated in a manner as are the products to be sold treated. There is a
difference between the celebrity culture and the consumer culture in the sense that the former is
just a part of the latter. There could be no existence of the former without the latter. The choice
of the consumers is, for these reasons, influenced by the choices of the celebrities (Barron,
2014).
The consumers allow the celebrities to be a part of the collective society by following
them, which is created through the presence of this celebrity culture. And as stated earlier, the
presence of the celebrity culture is propagated in an unknowing manner by the consumers only.
Included in the celebrity culture phenomenon are the celebrities themselves as participants,
which allows them in being aware of the brand which they create and also in attaining the
financial gains by using their own status and the same, in addition to the foundation of the pre-
branding of such celebrities. In view of Lapham (1993), this idea is based upon the naturally
taking place relationship in between the regular people and the pedestal ones. In a number of
religious books, examples have been covered who are well known by the people in general
public. The pharaohs of ancient Egypt ensured that their fame was carried on for the centuries to
come. Earlier, the celebrity culture was restricted to the mythical, biblical and royalty figures and
they were found in the majority of sectors in society which included publishing, business and
also included academia. Each of the scientific advancement is touched with the name that led to
the discovery. Particularly in context of thee larger contributions to humanity, a lot of honour

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and respect is given to the contributors. With the advent of mass media, the power and exposure
of the celebrities has increased. With this a trend has been developed which is carried on by the
celebrities with the rise in the social capital, in comparison to the earlier times. Every cultural or
national community has their own celebrity system which is independent; though, there has been
a decline in this owing to globalization (Barron, 2014).
In the last decade, the TV across the globe has seen a grown focus on teaching the
audience regarding how their daily lives have to be managed and optimized by a flawless focus
on health, grooming, style, home decoration and food. Owing to this interest, there is
introduction of the audiences to rigors of lifestyle management and self-care which is followed
by a number of popular lifestyle express being brought forward in comparison to the traditional
experts. In this regard, the growing celebritization and the branding of the ordinary experts have
a key influence on the lifestyle expertise of people. There is an abundance of literature regarding
the role played by the celebrities as being the prominent cultural authorities (Marshall 1997;
Turner, Bonner & Marshall. 2000; Corner & Pels 2003; Turner 2004; Evans & Hesmondhalgh
2005). In the popular expertise realms, there have been a number of scholars who have turned
their analytical gaze over the rising number of domestic experts and lifestyle specialists who
make appearance on the primetime TV, where they carry out the discussion on the rising focus
and influence over the issues which concern the conduct of self and included in this pool of
scholars is Moseley (2000), Taylor (2002), Hollows (2003), Palmer (2004), Attwood (2005) and
Bonner (2005).

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Consumers in life of Celebrities
In the traditional manner, the experts and the celebrities have been deemed as existing in
different spheres of public life and had been linked to diversified sets of logics and values. As is
the case of intellectuals, the experts were associated with high culture and with modes of rational
techniques and knowledge regarding social organization followed with the rise of modern state.
A stark contrast to this is the trends of celebrity which are seen as being in existence with the
consumer and popular culture, coupled with mediatised public field in which the entertainment is
deemed as more privileged in comparison to the information, thus having an affect over the
meaning (Lewis, 2001). In the representation of the two different kinds of cultural authority, the
celebrity and expert are nonetheless characterized with similar tensions in-between the claim of
elite or the exception status and also the type of public representativeness. In the rise of the
celebrity expert, a key role is played by the media culture, particularly in reconfiguration and
flattening of the distinctions which are between the ordinary and expert discourse, owing to the
process of celebritization (Lewis, 2010).
There has been a clear link in the intimate lives of the ordinary people shifting in
commodity culture and in the enhanced focus upon the consumption of domestically oriented
advice, goods and services, and lifestyle. Owing to the instructional role played by the celebrities
as being the life specialists, along with their highly visible lifestyles, being an example for the
consumers, the celebrity lifestyle plays a major part in the affirmation of some of the modes of
the consumption based personal values and also on the ways of living. This is passed on and
devolved on the broader issues of community responsibility and the ethical decision making
towards the general public. The branded lifestyle expertise is seen as logical extension of

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privatized politics and this can be established in the examples like Martha Stewart who offer an
all encompassing lifestyle blueprint amidst the large array of choices (Lewis, 2010). The work of
Lury (2004) and Arvidsson (2006) has suggested that the relationship present between the
branded lifestyles and consumers is not a passive one in necessary manner. This is a dynamic
relationship, along with being an interactive process in which the consumers forgo the brands’
meaning and also create social relations’ wide set where the brand is given value. This means
that even though consumption was earlier viewed as non-productive activities, but with the
growth of informational capitalism, there have been decision-making and imaginative processes
which are associated with the daily, private and domestic consumption. This in turn has valorised
the lifestyle expertise (Lewis, 2010).
The celebrities have been made such a brand that it has also turned into a negative
direction. This is particularly in context of the hounding of celebrities where their privacy is
invaded and which goes beyond the boundaries of propriety and even enter in illegality of
harassment (Roberts, 1997). A proof of this is the death of Princess Diana in 1997. Even in the
aftermaths of 9/11, the sobriety culture of celebrities was presented, where the celebrities like
Tom Hanks and George Clooney bringing support to the America’s real heroes, which included
the police and the fire-fighters who gave their life in order to save other during the collapse of
Twin Towers (Beach, 2001). These cases highlight the celebrity culture being represented by an
unwanted excess, which was required to be reined in the civil society’s structure. All these
raised questions on why do the celebrities and the celebrity culture continue to hold such a
fascination. In short, why do the celebrities still address so significantly to the contemporary
culture even with the shift in the structure of entertainment and media industries.

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The very first dimension of the answer to such question is that the celebrity is a
pedagogical tool which helps in discourse of self. For the most parts of the 20th century, the
celebrities serviced as being the beacon of public word and they helped in defining zeitgeist of
specific movement, which is the structure of feeling on which reliance is made on mediation
through popular music, TV, radio and films. Hence the stories on how the hairstyle of women in
1920s to 1940s had been determined by the screen icons who were in the Hollywood industry in
US represents just a very basic example of how the preventatives move in cultural dimensions.
The singlet of Clarke Gable or the hatless inauguration of JFK shaped the sartorial style in US at
the very least. There have been a number of examples of power which the icons on screen held
for embodying a particular mood. For instance, a general feature amongst the youth culture of
1950s was seen owing to the role of James Dean in Rebel without a Cause. The impact of music
videos also cannot be denied which provided attitude and panoply of styles which migrated with
surprising force in a transnational manner. Some celebrities also held the power of capitalizing
such changes in powers and in the origins of the presentations. A leading example of translation
of sub cultural style for wider media through music, music videos and performance was
Madonna, who did this successfully for over two decades. This style later on became a fashion
and a popular culture (Marshall, 2010).
The impact of celebrity has served a number of purposes across the 20th century. The
generations had been taught by the celebrity on how to engage and make use of the consumer
culture in order to make oneself. In the numerous treatises on consumer culture and advertising,
the cultural critics identified the manner in which the people could be taught on how they have to
consume and also on how the value of consumption has to be recognized by them for their

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personal advantage. This could be easily established in the works of Story (1999), Toland and
Mueller (2003), and most important in Leiss, Kline & Jhally. (2005). Ewen (1975) shed light on
wage slavery where it was stated that in place of making close, it was easier to get these made for
the person and use the wages for capturing the latest fashion, along with the most recent style.
This is the reason why the shops provided a way to the consumers where the potential and
possibility was represented in addition to participation on the connected wider culture which had
been cross linked with the stars and their entertainment culture (Schudson, 1984).
Something which is not much developed in these criticisms regarding the consumer
culture relates to the academic work which was performed for transforming a more traditional
culture in consumer culture which is dependent to a big extent on the celebrities and also in their
capacity to embody transformative power which is larger part of the consumer culture. As a
result of the celebrities being central in self-production, the celebrity gossips, which are quite
elaborate, provide continuity to the discourse which is around the presentation of self for the
consumption of public. There has also been a cultural and technological change in this regard,
particularly in context of the social networks to the presentational media. Amongst the key
elements of discourse and celebrity culture in the previous century is the different types of
address. This is because the celebrities present themselves as the cultural forms of performers
and also were present in celebrity gossip settings and interview strictures. The
intercommunicative dimension of the online social networking identifies the need for the
celebrities, in staying connected to the shifted relationship, in a specified manner to the public
and to the audience. There is a need for the engagement of the celebrities which in past had been
partly handled through the celebrity industry’s ancillary press and now could implicate the

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celebrity in interpersonal communication flow. Irrespective of this, the celebrities are in the front
position with their fans, regarding the etiquette of engagement. There is a pragmatic
understanding in the para-social self in which is crucial for communicating with millions in
individual manner (Marshall, 2010).
The level of engagement of the celebrity with fans is usually related to the relative power
of position of the celebrity in the representation culture. This is the reason why Oprah Winfrey
has been amongst the most successful talk shows in the nation and across the globe and had been
very helpful in expansion of her reach in the Twitter world and has also raced her in attaining
followed in the first half of 2009 alone. There has been a minimalistic reply to the huge fan
following which she had attained and she simply follows a handful. Just like her, Demi Moore
and Ashton Kutcher were the celebrity royalty of Twitter, and they in turn followed merely 113
and 261 individuals, respectively. However, an effort is made by them in replying to the
messages of the fans. They also work on promoting a number of issues and also continue to
maintain the exchange of information, which has in turn resulted in Twitter becoming one stop
for all things celebrity. An example of this is the post of Ashton Kutcher being deemed as a
normal tweet, which becomes special, owing to the number of users on Twitter, relaying the link,
showing their interest. These are the factors why the celebrity culture continues to proliferate,
continue and prosper as a powerful influence (Marshall, 2010). The brands usually go for such
celebrities who have a higher presence on the social media, in order to garner more traffic or
inertest of the consumers, towards them (Blue, 2007).

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Technology as a factor
With the growth in technology and that of publicity apparatuses, the celebrities became
more and more visible and were integrated in the discussions. The growing visibility, in views of
Gamson (1992) poses a threat over the myth that fame is natural cream rising to the top
phenomenon. In the earlier half of this century, this threat had been controlled largely but the
same had not been muted in its entirety. This is because the audiences were invited in real life of
celebrities, which discerned the reality behind an image and suggested that the publicity
apparatuses were in control of audience. The history sketches the position where there has been
switch in two 20th century, which is concentrated on being famous. The main struggle is the
presentation of celebrity to be keeping up with the economics of stardom and keeping it intact by
making the admiration of the celebrities a coherent enterprise. Production of celebrity is coupled
with a threat. This is particular in context of the lost control over the texts in the latter half of the
century and the same being decentralized.
The negative aspect
The interaction between the celebrities and brand culture can further be explained in
context of the negative impact which can take place. As has been touched upon earlier, a
celebrity is used as a medium of endorsing the products of the company. The celebrities are used
by the brands for their promotion, based on the image of the celebrity and the type of fan
following which they have. Where a sports person is the celebrity, the individual would be used
for promoting products like shoes, health drinks, clothing merchandise, and sports equipment.
The situation in which the celebrity gets involved in a negative event or information, whereby
the reputation of the celebrity is damaged, the brand has to bear the reciprocal results of such

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event. A leading example of this is Tiger Woods where a number of brands had to pull back their
contracts with Tiger Woods after his extra-marital affairs, which put him in negative image
amongst the views of the followers. A reciprocal effect which can happen in interconnectivity of
celebrity and brand image is that that where owing to a negative event or information, the
reputation of the brand is damaged, the effect of the same transpires on the celebrity and leading
examples of this happening are Coco-cola and McDonald’s. Thus, a number of issues are raised
where the consumers examine the endorsing party and the brand decision based on the
perceptions of negative or positive information. In addition to this, the awareness of brand has
significant effects over the decision-making of the consumer, which influences them entering in
consideration, and in context of the influence over the selected actions of brands (Keller, 1993;
Macdonald & Sharp, 2000).
Transferring effectiveness
Gaining an understanding to the transfer effectiveness in between the brand and the
celebrity continues to be an issue of significance for the practitioners and the academics. This
includes the case of McCracken (1989), Louie and Obermiller (2002), and Ilicic and Webster
(2011). The celebrity endorses do share a well known feature of style, recognition, popularity
and attractiveness, where each celebrity has their own unique image which is featured in the
brand (Kamins, 1990; Ohanian, 1990). The consumers usually idolize the celebrities in
emulating the behaviours and styles. This could view some meanings or images of celebrities to
be relevant to the ideal self-image and also to the purchase brands which are endorsed by the
celebrities in the hope that some become same as their looked upon celebrities through the
consumption of such brands. The celebrity image, in this view, plays a key role in the process of