14 DAY TRIAL // A few days ago, we were talking about the triumphant return of the "original" supermodels on the catwalks and in advertising campaigns for a series of high-end brands such as Prada or YSL. However, fashion and advertising industry experts advise us not to start trumpeting the demise or fall from grace of celebrity-endorsed advertising just yet. In the end, whether we like it or not, nothing sells like celebrity, whether we're talking about a newly-emerging trendy singer with definite star qualities, an older yet universally recognized rock god or those ever-hyped iconic faces of the silver screen.
A huge cultural and social rift occurred between the celebrity world and the world that harbors our everyday lives at the end of the 1990s and saw "celebrity" become a lot more than a label defining a certain social status, much like "lawyer", "doctor" or "politician". These days, celebrity no longer means a pretty face and lots of screaming fans but rather, celebrity means selling power and the ability to get spectacular, never-before-seen endorsement deals.
The numbers are everything. Hands up those of you who know what the Davie Brown Index (D.B.I.) is. I'll tell you: it is an independent online rating system that debuted two years ago and that rates the marketing power of celebrities. A singer like Beyonc? for example scores 81.31 on the 100-point scale, and comes in at number 27. The top five spots are a male-only affair: Tom Hanks, Will Smith, Michael Jordan, Morgan Freeman and George Clooney lead the pack of over 1,800 celebrities tracked by the D.B.I.
The explanation for why we crave celebrity-endorsed products is simple: we want a little bit of their lifestyle, their glamor and their aura of everlasting beauty and wealth. An aura that is in turn promoted and strengthened by their endorsement deals: Nicole Kidman promotes the iconic fragrance Chanel No. 5, Eva Longoria advertises L'Or?al Paris hair color and Jessica Simpson represents the acne skin-care line Proactiv Solution. Whether it's beautiful skin, their favorite coffee, shoes or the latest eco-friendly car, if celebrities look like they actually use a certain product, we'll buy it. It's as simple as that. And as much as we sometimes despise it, celebrity advertising is here to stay. Welcome to the 21st century!