NYU & Star Power

About four years ago, New York University students walked to class hoping they would run into Mary Kate Olsen, catch a sighting of Haley Joel Osment on the elevator or sit in on a Tisch class with Mara Wilson. Even Hilary Duff, who is a guest star on Gossip Girl, is playing a famous star who comes to NYU to have a "normal" college experience, inspired by Emma Watson's enrollment at Brown this past fall. It is not only Tisch that attracts these stars, but NYU is the home of the avante-garde and artistically creative. Even students in CAS often seem to have a guitar in hand, making it even more likely that somewhere down the line that NYU students are headed for stardom. NYU is the place where celebrities come to attend school or at least where they start out.

"NYU student" Hilary Duff on the set of Gossip Girl

It seems like Lady Gaga has no problem returning to NYU for

a guest appearance in Gossip Girl's newest episode this Monday.

However, it seems that these days NYU is going gaga for more than Lady Gaga, who was also enrolled at NYU before she hit it big. This past week, Emma Thompson, Matt Damon and Spike Lee were on campus, making it seem more than a natural coincidence that they happened to be here at the same time. On Tuesday, the British star Emma Thompson alongside Mayor Bloomberg, opened her art exhibit "JOURNEY" with a high-profile press conference. Emma Thompson's walk-through exhibit told the story of a 19-year old girl who was beaten and forced into sex trafficking.

This week, as a part of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute "Primary Sources" series, Spike Lee discussed his work with NYU writer-in-residence James McBride.

Matt Damon contributed to a discussion of a History Channel documentary entitled, "The People Speak." NYU, Cooper Union and the History Channel sponsored the event called "The People Speak Live."

It is from each of these project that demonstrate NYU's use of star power to not only to attract attention in the media and boost its reputation, but more specifically to grab the attention of students who are filling out the last of their college applications as Thanksgiving break approaches. This presence of the celebrity on the campus of New York University not only popularizes the college experience here, but makes prospective students believe that NYU is the place where they'll someday find fame. Celebrity endorsements are not only for fashion, cars and electronics, but for institutions of higher education.

Choosing the Celebrity Endorser

Advertisements are everywhere we turn, either in print, on billboards and in magazines or in the form of television commercials. The power of many of these advertisements come from ad endorsements. Even though a celebrity will naturally capture attention, companies select their endorsers much more carefully than we might expect.

For example, companies don't just select a television or movie star who has recently been in the spotlight, but an individual who carefully represents the company's brand. For example, Target refused to have Anna Sui's new clothing line worn on the set of Gossip Girl, despite the fact that the show inspired the collection in the first place. An Anna Sui advertisement recently publicized the new clothing line at Target based on each of the Gossip Girl characters. This television ad ran during the break of the actual Gossip Girl show, which airs Mondays at 9PM.

Anna Sui clothing line available at Target loosely

based on the distinct styles of each female character

on the television hit, Gossip Girl.

Despite this original plan for Anna Sui's clothing line to be featured on the show, the designer was not able to send her clothes to the set of Gossip Girl for the young female stars to actually wear.

Leighton Meester and Blake Lively, who star on Gossip Girl.

Executives at Target feared that their company would be "too closely associated with the show." This is clearly a disclaimer of sorts for each of the star's debased television personas. With themes of debauchery, drunkenness and sexually promiscuous behavior, Target refused to have the stars of the show concretely associated with the clothing line, despite the fact that the inspiration had been drawn from the celebrity cast itself.

This is one example of how companies not only seek to make a profit from celebrity images, but the celebrity selection is under close and careful inspection. Similarly, supermodel Kate Moss originally had a contract with Burberry and Chanel, but cancelled the deal because of her use of cocaine. More recently, due to her outburst at the U.S. Open could have cost Serena Williams two of her largest sponsors, Nike and Kraft Foods.

Just as companies seek to eliminate stars with tarnished images, they also harness the positive energy and reputations of others. Based on an ad I recently saw in a fashion magazine, Walmart and L.E.I. Jeans did not only select Taylor Swift because she is popular teen star at the moment, but because she is considered one of the more upstanding young female stars. The ad depicts a photo of her onstage, with the words in white print across the center: "Life Energy Intelligence Taylor Swift." The lack of punctuation not only makes these three qualities synonymous with Taylor, but then attaches these qualities to creating an all-American image for both the classic jeans and the Walmart store.

All of these examples suggest that companies are very much aware of the reputations and images of the celebrities that they hire.

The bottom line is celebrity endorsers can drive the success of an ad campaign, but choosing the wrong celebrity becomes risky business...