Celebrity endorsement has been perceived by advertisers as an effective method of promotion for a long time. Several studies show that advertisements showing celebrities endorsing a specific brand get more attention and recall than non-celebrity ads. The choice of a particular celebrity for a brand is one aspect that is critical to the success of any campaign. Several models have been put forward examining the various criteria involved. The present study is an attempt to evaluate five Indian celebrities on five dimensions of trustworthiness, career performance, role model status, compelling power and attractiveness and to use the findings to analyze the effectiveness of the ads they feature in (selected on the basis of respondent ad recall).

For over a century firms have been juxtaposing their brands and themselves with celebrity endorsers (from Sports to Movies etc.) with the hope that celebrities may boost effectiveness of their marketing and/or corporate communication attempts. Queen Victoria's endorsement of Cadbury's Cocoa (Sherman, 1985) is one of the earliest examples of celebrity endorsement. Rapid strides in the field of marketing communication have contributed to the growth of celebrity endorsement as an effective promotion tool. Today, use of celebrities as part of marketing communications strategy is fairly common practice for major firms in supporting corporate or brand imagery. This practice is not new to advertising in the United States either. In fact, a survey conducted by BusinessWeek way back in 1978 found that almost one in three television commercials used celebrity endorsement. Although not that high today, celebrity endorsements are still popular (Kamins, 1990; Misra and Beatty, 1990; and Ohanian, 1991).