Reese Witherspoon: America's Sweetheart

In 2007, Reese Witherspoon became an honorary chairman of the Avon Foundation, as well as the company's Global Ambassador where she would strengthen and publicize the Foundation's programs working to battle against breast cancer and domestic violence. Now, Witherspoon is launching her own perfume line from Avon.

Witherspoon is the perfect celebrity for such causes. She is known as the sweet Southern girl who maintains her good girl image in real life and in her films, including Cruel Intentions, Sweet Home Alabama, Legally Blonde and Walk the Line. This image is what contributes to Witherspoon’s trustworthiness, making her even more valuable in company endorsement campaigns. In fact, Forbes named her one of the top ten most trustworthy celebrities, which also included Tom Hanks, Rachael Ray, Michael J. Fox, Oprah Winfrey, James Earl Jones, Denzel Washington, Ty Pennington, Ron Howard and Morgan Freeman.

Witherspoon also demonstrates the power of the halo effect. The halo effect states that when "we recognize one positive attribute about a person, we tend to subconsciously assume they have many more." Forbes states: "It's an easy jump from thinking Hollywood darling Reese Witherspoon is beautiful to thinking she is sweet, intelligent and trustworthy." Beauty indeed has more power than the consumer may think. In fact, "attractive people have an emotional effect on us--a neurochemical release goes along with seeing them."

Thus, Avon couldn't possibly go wrong with snagging Witherspoon to be the face of their products and their causes. When a celebrity has attained that sense of trustworthiness, it not only strengthens the brand image, but the actress's attachment to Avon instantly legitimizes its products and humanitarian causes.