Celebrity Branding

Kate Bosworth signed on to become a face at Calvin Klein in 2008

With Caitlyn Jenner all over the news lately, I’ve been thinking about the associations we have with certain celebrities and the brands they’ve endorsed.  I honestly think the reasons that it is so shocking to see Caitlyn is because I keep envisioning the extremely masculine guy she once was on the Wheaties box. And then I got to thinking how powerful that branding was since years later I still have that image in my mind and associate Wheaties with Bruce Jenner.

Celebrities are chosen to endorse products based on several criteria including attractiveness, likeability and credibility. Jenner’s athletic masculinity was exactly what the country needed at the time. During the Cold War (1947-1991), Eastern block athletes often edged out the Americans in sports competitions so when Jenner won the decathlon at the Montreal Olympics in 1976, he was an American hero; a handsome one at that and Wheaties was able to profit from his stature.

 In the case of fashion, physical appearance is of course the primary factor but not the only one. Brooke Shields was the face of Calvin Klein for so many because she was incredibly beautiful yet she was also a good girl. We never heard about her getting into trouble. She went to Princeton. It is interesting that this image of her bore out over time, even as she aged and was no longer doing Calvin Klein advertisements. She is not the only celebrity to be imbedded in people’s memories of Calvin Klein; Mark Wahlberg and Kate Bosworth also made an indelible impression.

 When Louis Vuitton hired Madonna they wanted someone with some edge. Even now that she is in her 50’s, Madonna has kept her cutting edge style and she also has cross generational appeal, spanning from her peers to people who were born after Sex, her book of erotic photography came out.

 Of course there are countless other celebrities that have become synonymous with the brands they represent.  Michael Jordan and Nike, and even though Jordan retired in 2003, he still gets a check from Nike every year in the 50 to 60 million dollar range.  Quite simply, many think he is the best basketball player ever and that still goes a long way.

 Jenner’s endorsement of Wheaties nearly 40 years ago has been a topic of conversation lately and there is probably no better proof that this was a highly successful campaign. It makes me wonder which celebrity endorsements today will be as memorable a half a century away.