Customers see through celebrity endorsements

MARKS & Spencer in its ‘leading ladies’ advertising campaign employed a dozen ‘iconic’ women celebrities to promote its new autumn clothing range, but customers, or prospective customers, have not been impressed; the campaign has been called a £5m flop, and M&S has, apparently, been surprised by the results.

To me, the only surprise is that M&S is surprised the campaign wasn’t a huge success.

Am I in a minority that is nauseated by famous 
celebrities, most of whom have received huge salaries over several decades, now stuffing more cash into their bank accounts by trying to seduce us to buy (invest) in the products or services of companies which, I believe, they, themselves, would never use?

Are we all regarded as so stupid to not understand that the reason the celebrity is taking part in the advertisement is for the fee paid and if the sale of such products have to rely on the buying public being influenced by a paid celebrity taking part, what does it say about its true worth?

The celebrities have earned a fine reputation in their careers, often over many years, but their desire for ever more money greatly reduces this reputation when we witness such ‘tacky’ behaviour.

And the £5m wasted by M&S on this failed adventure? How 
will this be recouped? Well, won’t this cost have to be shared amongst all of their products and thus paid for by the remaining customers?

Getting the message across to customers by showing the full merits of their goods is admirably achieved by some companies by using ‘normal’ people, the ones who would, quite legitimately, use and benefit from the product and thus rightfully encourage others to emulate them.