The impact of death on consumer responses to celebrity endorser misbehavior

Abstract

A well‐established stream of research on celebrity misbehavior suggests that negative information may have an adverse effect on an endorsed brand because of its association with a celebrity considered as blameworthy. However, the present research calls into question the generalizability of these results to fatal misbehaviors (i.e., misbehaviors that lead to the celebrity's death). Indeed, after death, a celebrity may gain spiritual meanings, and consumers may find it more difficult to blame a sacred individual. As such, the current article investigates the impact of a celebrity's death on blame attribution and consumer attitudes in the context of celebrity endorser misbehavior. The results of three experiments uncover that death favors a partial blame attribution transfer from the celebrity endorser to the brand, but only when the misbehavior implies a product related to the brand. In addition, the findings reveal a positive effect of death through celebrity sacredness on brand attitude.

Consumer response to celebrity transgression: investigating the effects of celebrity gender and past transgressive and philanthropic behaviors using real celebrities

“…Forgiveness has been conceptualized as an intrapsychic juxtaposition that allows consumers to continue parasocial relationships with the transgressed celebrity (Finsterwalder et al, 2017). As such, blaming a celebrity for a single transgression will be a function of the consumer's attribution of celebrity culpability for the transgression, and the celebrity is believed to be responsible for the transgression (Boeuf, 2017). However, forgiveness would be a function of other factors that allow the experience of feeling empathy for the celebrity, and a reason to look past the transgression and give the celebrity another chance (Zhou and Whitla, 2013).…”

“…Behavioral consistency is a cornerstone of attribution theory and is considered to be an important antecedent of attributions of cause, or blame for an actor's behavior (Kelley, 1967(Kelley, , 1973. Extant celebrity transgression literature, which systematically examines endorsement and celebrity outcomes through experimentation, often uses either fictitious celebrity or athlete transgressors (Boeuf, 2017;Carrillat et al, 2013;Chang, 2017;Lee et al, 2020) involved in a single transgression event. While the use of a fictitious celebrity may simplify the creation of a stimulus story and corresponding treatment conditions, it curates information within one-shot exposure, a fleeting time frame and ignores consumer knowledge of a real celebrity's behavioral history.…”

“…Finally, studies of celebrity transgression typically study male celebrities (Boeuf, 2017; Carrillat et al , 2013; Chung et al , 2013; Jones et al , 2022; Kennedy et al , 2019; Money et al , 2006; Thomas and Fowler, 2016), and while some also examine female celebrities (Kintu and Ben-Slimane, 2020; Singh et al , 2020; Thomas and Fowler, 2021) or both genders (Fong and Wyer, 2012; Smith et al , 2021; Thomson et al , 2022; Thwaites et al , 2012), they do not offer a systematic comparison of transgression outcomes based on celebrity gender. The literature on gender roles and stereotypes consistently shows different expectations of men and women for a range of behaviors (Bem, 1981), including anti-social, immoral and helping and nurturing behaviors (Eagly and Crowley, 1986).…”

Idolizing “My Love from the Star”: Idol attachment and fanaticism of luxury brands

“…Role models can be anyone that can motivate individuals to adopt certain self‐images and lifestyle patterns (Lockwood & Kunda, ), as well as influence their decision choices and buying attitudes (D’Rozario, ; Huang et al, 2015; Martin & Bush, ). Past studies emphasize on associating the celebrities who would best represent the brand (e.g., Boeuf, ). The social norm perspective argues that reference groups can choose to regulate the conduct of their members through the establishment and reinforcement of norms (Fisher & Ackerman, ; Roper et al, ).…”

Roles of K-pop Idols as Brand Ambassadors for Gen Z’s Buying Behavior in Indonesia’s E-Commerce

“…One of the ways to provide a competitive advantage is by offering high-quality, customized products to our brand ambassadors and special limited-edition products that create the desired image for our special customers so that brand image has a positive and meaningful impact on brand awareness [4,10]. Brand ambassadors have a significant impact on customer attitudes by creating a desirable brand image, and the appearance of brand ambassadors on social networks increases the impact of social networks on brand awareness [1,9,11]. Brand image has a positive impact on customers' buying behavior and also customers' intention to purchase reputable brands online [12,15].…”