Celebrity Advertising: past issue or existing trend?

As a mentioned in my last post, this time I would write about celebrity advertising and what is the trend recently related to this issue. One question that is somehow inspired by the recent advertisements is related to the importance of celebrities’ presence in advertisements. Has this importance diminished or is it still on the same level?

My purpose here is not to give a definite answer and I believe that there might not be statistics that support certain conclusions about this topic. I will give some examples and raise some questions in the end, because I believe that it is an interesting topic based on which can be elaborated further discussion.

So far, among the most viral ads for 2014 are videos that human empowerment. This is not the case only with ads that depict social causes or similar issues. Budweiser is an example of a company that relies on the power of horses and dogs to make their ads more appealing. Probably you remember their famous Super Bowl ad “Puppy Love.”

In addition, some of the most successful and viral ads for 2013 feature non-celebrities. I can mention here Evian’s “Baby& me” ad that currently has more than 73 million views. 

Dove is also focusing more on real life issues in their advertising campaigns. This is the case with “Dove Real Beauty Sketches” or “Selfie.” However, there are companies that still rely heavily on celebrity advertising. For example, H&M has recently used two celebrities in its advertising campaigns. The first one is David Beckham as a representative of the Autumn male clothing collection and the other one is Miranda Kerr who is the representative face of H&M’s spring collection.

Source: H&M Twitter profile

While H&M is using this strategy, many other fashion companies especially through the use of social media strategies are trying to encourage user generated content. Companies like Coach are using the power of colorful pictures to make their customers attached to their brand.

Source: "Coach admires the view from above" article

So, my question is: are these recent trends an indicator that celebrity advertising will lose the power it has previously when companies used them even as brand advocates? Will the increased use of social media strategies and the empowerment of user-generated content affect the effectiveness of celebrity advertising? You can share your opinion below. Let me know what you think. J