Celebrities and advertising

The short answer is borrowed trust. A brand nobody has heard of can spend years earning a reputation, or it can pay a well-loved actor and inherit some of the affection people already feel for that person overnight. It also helps an advert cut through the noise: we scroll past hundreds of them a day, but a familiar face makes us pause for a second, and a second is all the advertiser needs. On responsibility, I take a fairly firm line. If a singer is paid a fortune to say a weight-loss tea works, she ought to have checked that it does, and when it turns out to be useless or harmful she shouldn't be able to hide behind her contract. Fans buy because of her name, so her name should carry some of the blame. That said, I'd distinguish between endorsing a soft drink and endorsing medicine or financial products, where the potential damage is far greater and fines should be heavier. As for the future, I suspect big stars will matter less. Younger consumers increasingly trust small online reviewers who seem to use the product themselves, even though many of those reviews are paid for too. I'd expect brands to shift their budgets towards dozens of niche influencers, and regulators to respond by insisting that every sponsored post is clearly labelled.