Celebrity endorsement involves the use of a famous personality to be the brand ambassador. The aim is to associate the celebrity's success with the product or services the company offers. Mostly, celebrity endorsement helps build brand equity (Confessore et al., 2018). The form of advert also helps the customers remember the product whenever they encounter the celebrity. However, celebrity endorsement can have a damaging effect on the product or the company if the outcome does not meet the objective. Social media has become an excellent platform to promote celebrity adverts ( De Corniere & Sarvary, 2017). However, some of these celebrities perform poorly, leading to a poor image of the company’s product or services. James LeBron's advert with Samsung Galaxy series is an excellent example of celebrity endowment on social media gone wrong.
Samsung had a deal with the famous basketballer, LeBron James, to represent the company's Galaxy series. The deal was going well until the day LeBron made a disastrous mistake to the brand product image. James tweeted that his phones had just erased everything it had and rebooted. Lebron complained that it was one of the worst feelings in his life. James was quick to notice the mistake and later tweeted that he had recovered everything. However, the impact was huge. James is a celebrity with over 12 million Twitter followers. Despite deleting the tweet, people were quick to notice the matter. James represents Samsung Galaxy. Therefore, everyone was assuming that the phone that had messed him up was the brand he represents. The mistake was huge and could hinder the product's market penetration. LeBron James and Samsung deal show mistakes some celebrities make while advertising online. Through social media platform is a suitable platform for adverts, there is a need to take caution when using celebrity endorsement because their behavior could ruin the company’s image.
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References
De Corniere, A., &Sarvary, M. (2017). Social media and the news industry. Available at SSRN 3049358 .
Confessore, N. (2018, January 27). The Follower Factory . https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/27/technology/social-media-bots.html.
