Celebrity Hype

Show business personalities and celebrities the world over enjoy a tremendous amount of attention and, occasionally, outsized influence. None more so, perhaps, than the Philippines where celebrity pitchmen (and women) endorse a wide range of products – from softdrinks to personal care products, hamburgers, clothing, film, ferry services, and the list goes on. Show business stars Sharon Cuneta, Aga Mulach, Richard Gomez, and Lea Salonga lead a pack of celebrities which hype such products. In some cases, a star’s pulling power can generate sales for just a single line of products. In other cases, some stars’ pulling power is so versatile that they can simultaneously pitch totally unrelated products and generate success for each of them.

In rare cases, star strength is passed on to the next generation. Just think of Sharon Cuneta’s celebrated drawing power, now evident in her children, or of the shine of Richard Gomez coupled with the beauty of his wife, Lucy Gomez, and daughter, Juliana.

The celebrity endorsement game is by no means limited to Filipino movies and television stars. Other brands, mainly the clothing designers, have opted for foreign stars. Alicia Silverstone, Natalie Portman, and Mandy Moore all pitch fashion lines in the country, at least from tall billboards in Manila. The latest celebrity coup was to sign up and bring in Taiwanese F4 star Jerry Yan of Chinovela (Chinese telenovela), Meteor Garden, fame to hype another fashion line.

Does celebrity endorsement matter? By most accounts, the hype has helped sales and more than justified the endorsement and talent fees paid to the stars. That is assuming, of course, the products pitched were good to begin with and just needed more of a kick to get better known in the market. In some cases, celebrity power has enabled a newly-introduced product to take a market by storm and overtake the competition.

The only problem with this phenomenon is that people think the same deal can be applied to finding a leader for the country. Six months before the elections, a television newscaster and a movie star are being presented as this country’s next best thing. I’m afraid finding a celebrity pitchman for a product is not exactly quite like finding a leader for the country. It’s one thing to sell a softdrink; quite another to run a country.

But that’s a matter for another publisher’s note. Before I digress further, I invite you to read about the interesting phenomenon of celebrity selling in this issue of Philippine Business.

The publisher