Wednesday 25 April 2012

As if all the celebrity endorsements aren't bad enough...

 
Sorry I'm getting a bit on my high horse today!!  Ah, celebrity endorsements.  On the one hand I love you because of some of the amazing promotional images you come up with (Katy Perry for GHD) but on the other hand I sort of feel like if you're paying someone thousands of pounds to say how great something is then is that so great?  Especially when it seems pretty obvious that you probably don't use the product (Liv Tyler for Head and Shoulders, Cheryl Cole pimping out Loreal hair dye).  It's different with blogging, no-one pays me to do it and I'm always honest in my reviews because I can be, if I'm not keen on something then I'll say so.

But that isn't strictly what I'm talking about...I'm talking about the Olympics, and more specifically the use of the Olympics to hawk products.  Now I get it to some extent if you're selling trainers or sportswear (we won't talk about the Adidas ad with Keith Lemon in it) or sports equipment or an energy drink or anything connected to sports but er, anti ageing moisturiser or false lashes or shampoo?  Do these things really link in to the Olympics in any way?

I'm talking about the advert for Olay currently showing in the UK and featuring Jessica Ennis which features a lot of footage of her as an athlete then only really a brief mention of the products at the end, like it was an afterthought.  Sorry the only online link I can find to the ad is here in the Daily Mail, and I can't actually embed it.  The entire article reads like one big ad for Olay, which doesn't surprise me. And the fact I'm linking to it probably means I'm actually serving to promote this video/reach a wider audience, which so isn't the point! If you watch the video, any links to the products and use of are pretty tenuous at best.

Through a bit of research I've now discovered that there are quite a lot of Olympic ladies (including British cyclist Victoria Pendleton) promoting Pantene, synchronised swimmer Jenna Randall promoting the Braun Silk-epil Xpressive Pro Epilator range and swimmer Keri-Anne Payne promoting Max Factor.


I'm not slagging off these girls or the Olympics or anything - they're all gorgeous girls and talented athletes who are probably sponsored by Proctor & Gamble and have been offered a wedge of cash to promote a product, and why shouldn't they make the most of it while they're young?  I just question the relevance of Oil of Olay, Pantene or Max Factor in this context, it is just blatant cashing in but then again, I suppose that's the wonderful world of marketing! 

Does the fact something of this nature is endorsed by an Olympic athlete make you want to buy it? What did you think of the video?  Am I just being a misery?

5 comments:

  1. Yeah it's happening here too with American products and the US team, there's one advert with multiple athletes in it. Although their advertising brainwashing is certainly not working because I can't remember what on earth the product is! I think they all just up on the band wagon because it's what everyone else will be doing and perhaps the money the advert provides helps the athletes with funding their training, or at least I can hope it does.

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  2. I've been thinking the exact same thing! I hate sport and try to avoid it at all costs, now they've started mixing something I do care about (beauty products) with something I hate! I think it puts me off buying the products!

    sorry to be a bit of a winge :s

    x

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  3. Oh my god I so agree with you, they are every where! I have voiced this opinion myself - the Olympics has nothing to do with moisturiser! Have you seen the one for Fairy dihswasher tablets where it's saying how many dirty plates you go through to build an Olympian? What a ridiculous link! Just tell us it gets our dishes clean!
    Rant over. Breathe.
    xx
    emsipop.blogspot.com

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  4. Oh I remember that one too, it's been on for aaaages too - probably since the Olympics were first mentioned!

    I think I'm turning into a grumpy old woman he he.

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  5. I agree with you, the Cheryl Cole and Davina Mcall for L'Oreal annoys me so much! I mean REALLY? Do they expect us to believe that CHERYL COLE actually dyes her own hair at home with a packet of L'Oreal colour! If you google it you will probably discover who actually does Cheryl Coles hair, and I'm pretty sure it's not her own fair hands.

    Celebrity endorsements don't make me any more likely to buy the product than I normally would.

    Stories of an English rose

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