Star Power, Endorsements, Etc...

[Starkist]

Does celebrity endorsement sway your opinion on anything? For example, does George Harrison's faith lend more credibility to Hinduism for you? Does Susan Sarandon's crusade against the death penalty make you stop and think about your views? Does George Foreman make you more willing to buy his grill than if it were say a "Joshua Milton" grill?

Every cause wants star power on their side. They want to be connected with someone who is famous, someone who is a household name. Amnesty International has Bono, the National Rifle Association has Charlton Heston, 1-800-COLLECT has Mr. T. Do these endorsements carry weight with you?

Just random thoughts...

[MANDRAG GANON]

Only the Mr.T one!...and ALF! they got alf too I think!!!
acctually they don't, I don't really care, commercials and advertisements don't even affect me lol...the only thing that makes me buy something is if I see it in the store and go hey...what is this lets try it..or if someone tells me its good, or if I know its good. yes....

[Rijuhn]

I would like to say no, but for most everyone the advertisement works. When I go to a store and I see Pepsi, Coke, Sprite, and Barq's RootBeer, I choose root beer because I like it. But when I see the Pepsi I think of all the crazy advertisements they've made over the years, and then I double-think about whether I should get my root beer or Pepsi because it's "crazy, cool and young".

I usually get what I craving at that moment, but the advertisers job is done because I still thought about it, no matter how miniscule the time I spent thinking about it was.

[SomUnknown]

I'm always looking for new ways to be cool, so I always do what the T.V. tells me to, I want to be cool after all.

[Drunken Tiger]

Hehe, most of the time i just do things according to myself.. Of course if my friends question that, i will think about it, and may or may not change.. :shrug:

Really depends...

[Matteo]

Since I alone determine what is or isn't cool, I obviously base what I buy on my own opinions

[DarkDragon]

No, celebrity endorsement don't consciously affect my opinions, since many celebrities don't genuinely hold the opinions they endorse. Why should I care which celebrity a certain company managed to pay off?

[Ich]

I agree. Although, Bam Margera's obsession with the band "Him" caused me to download a fair amount of their music.

[Starkist]

I notice most everyone is talking about the merchendising angle, but what about the social causes angle? That was what the question was framed toward anyway.

[inori]

Does being a celebrity make their viewpoint any more valid than mine? Not in my opinion... it just means they have more disposable time for "social causes."

[AtmaWeapon]

The only way a person's status influences my decisions is their infamy. In the case of the George Foreman grill v. the Joshua Milton grill, I'd probably buy the Foreman grill. However, if 2 or 3 of my friends had purchased the JMN grill and liked it, I'd overcome my bias.

So basically, it determines my first impression of a cause or product. I then search for the opinions of people I trust. I put them together, and decide if my personal feelings need to be altered.

Same thing with social causes, if the person is someone I don't like, I tend to not listen to their points. Their status with me will determine how aggressively I argue or support their stance.

Example:

Say the person I hate most in the world (whoever is responsible for the last 4-5 years of Square, henceforth named Squareman) decides to crusade for anti-abortion. I support anti-abortion causes (at least ones that don't believe in blowing stuff up), so despite my hatred of Squareman, I would still support the cause. However, I would avoid as much as I could using materials put forth by Squareman.

Now, say someone I like a little more, like Shigeru Miyamoto, takes up an anti-abortion cause. I will fully support anything he says or does (save blowing up stuff).

If either one of them took up a pro-abortion cause, I would oppose them. I wouldn't go so far as to boycott their products, but the difference would be how aggressively I opposed them. Say I was in a debate against the both of them. I would point out even the smallest flaws in Squareman's arguments, and the focus of my points would be to discredit and possibly humiliate Squareman. In Miyamoto's case, I'd stick to simply pointing out the flaws I found in his arguments and refute them.

So, star power doesn't influence my ideas, but it does influence how strongly I fight for them.