A recent decision from Jenny Craig to scale back the use of celebrities in their ads has been a hot topic in the media and after several requests to weigh in on the topic, we thought it was good time to refresh your memory on the inherent risks associated with including and creating ad campaigns around celebrities.

1: Celebrities Are Polarizing

It’s tough to find a celebrity that doesn’t alienate half the audience. Even among a specific target like females 21 – 35, the inclusion of an iconic star will likely have some significant portion of ladies cringing.

2: Celebrities Lack Relevance and Authenticity

Often advertisers select an endorser based on popularity or what they assume to be an obvious tie to the brand or product but fail to execute a campaign that effectively communicates that relationship. The result is an ad that leaves viewers confused or annoyed – a negative perception for the brand. Further the connection needs to be meaningful – brands should ask themselves “what message is  this person uniquely qualified to deliver to consumers?” Long gone are the days of the “I use BrandX, so should you” type of endorsement.

3: Brands Are Vulnerable to the Ongoing Rep of the Celeb

Selecting the right celebrity that will appeal to a broad audience AND provide authenticity is extremely difficult and costly, but once you’ve done that – you still run the risk of the celebrities next steps reflect negatively on your brand. In the weight loss category, what do you do if your endorser packs on the pounds next year, or a paparazzi captures a binge eating episode.

Similar examples likely leap to mind but here are some trigger words: Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, Jessica Simpson, Kim Kardashian.  This adds an additional risk to the investment, often not factored in to the endorsement decision.

We’ve scored tens of thousands of ads and compared the effectiveness of ads with and without and the data tells us clearly that celebrity ads on average are less effective than ads without. For more data behind our findings, download our whitepaper.

So why do advertisers continue to pay these big salaries?

The advertising industry is full of myths and legends, and this is just one of them. Data wasn’t available to evaluate the ROI of the celebrity investment, so advertisers just used their gut, or conventional wisdom to sign up a celeb. Plus they got invited to better parties!

Today, advertisers have the empirical data at their fingertips to determine if their ads are working – they just need to use it rather than their old, ragged playbook.