Nikon: Ashton's Picture Perfect

Ashton Kutcher, the former star of That 70s Show and host of Punk'd, is the new face of Nikon cameras. It is interesting to note that the url for the COOLPIX camera is: www.ashtonscoolpix.com. The new Nikon camera is sleek, fashionable and colorful. Kutcher is trendy enough to promote the COOLPIX model, especially with is connection to Twitter. The celebrity is a frequent user of Twitter, which he is currently used to promote Nikon’s Film Festival, “a user-generated content contest for people to submit "a day through your lens" video for the chance to win $100,000.” In his short video, Kutcher documented his trip to Africa with his wife, Demi Moore. Kutcher has four million Twitter followers, which Nikon is clearly using to its advantage.

Release Your Inner Rock Star

After much exposure during the VMA Awards and her latest tour, Taylor Swift is now an endorser for the Band Hero video game. In her new commercial, Taylor Swift performs alongside Rivers Cuomo from Weezer, Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy and Travis Barker from Blink-182.

The commercial starts out with the classic opening scene from Tom Cruise’s Risky Business. The celebrities were true to Cruise’s rendition with white socks and button down shirts. As the walls of the living room fade away, Taylor moves out onto an arena and into a crowd while performing her hit song, “Love Story.”

While various celebrities from Heidi Klum and David Cook from Michael Phelps and A-Rod have endorsed this video game, this month Gwen Stefani of No Doubt announced that she was suing Activision, the company that makes Band Hero, because her band avatars were only supposed to sing three of her original band songs. Instead, players of the video game can use images of Gwen Stefani to perform songs like the Rolling Stone’s “Honky Tonk Woman.” While it is evident that celebrities drive the sales of this video game, such endorsements deals are at the center of legal dispute and increase the risk liability for companies who hire stars.

Celebrity Smells Like Success

Celebrities have become predominant endorsers for various fragrances, most famously Nicole Kidman for Chanel's No. 5 and Anne Hathaway for Lancome's Magnifique:

Celebrities, however, have taken full advantage of the perfume industry--becoming endorsers for their own fragrance. It seems as though every new star launches a perfume line. In fact, there are more new fragrances released in a year than in the 1970s and 1980s combined. In this competitive industry, stars know the power of their names--and so do the companies.

The article features rapper 50 Cent, who released his cologne "Power," had loyal fans lined up to buy the new scent. During the premiere of the line at Macy's, customers of the perfume had the opportunity to take a picture with the star. As an excited fan and customer of the perfume said: "It's not the perfume, it's his energy." This is a primary example of the fact that celebrity brands indeed sell.

The NPR article states that perfume is the best tool to monetize the celebrity, even more so that clothes, music or movies. The celebrity brands, such as J. Lo, Gwen Stefani and Sarah Jessica Parker, saves millions of dollars in advertising because the consumer has knowledge of the product from the moment it hits the counter. It is the name, not the perfume that sells.

Britney Spears launched her Circus Fantasy perfume on August 27, 2009 as a part of her theme for her newest record and world tour. Not only are her fans attracted to buy this product, but especially the younger demographic that hopes to emulate her power, popularity and sex appeal.

J. Lo's new scent, however, "My Glow," was inspired by the "glow" that motherhood creates. In contrast to her edgier fragrance lines, this softer scent seems to capture the love, pride and happiness that she feels as a new mother of twins. Regardless of the targeted demographic, it seems that celebrities can use their name as a strong and appealing brand.

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.

Rihanna's Tarnished Image

The famous pop star Rihanna stepped into the world of ad endorsements when she collaborated with Totes to sell her very own umbrellas in honor of her top single sensation, "Umbrella." Rihanna's success was at an all time high, scoring deals with Gilette, Cover Girl and most impressively the fashion powerhouse, Gucci.

As seen in Emma Watson's Burberry endorsement, high fashion corporations are particularly careful when selecting the faces of their brand. In fact, it's very rare that a celebrity is used. However, Rihanna, who has tattoos herself, offered an edgy and modern image that complemented the Gucci designer's Frida Gianni's "Tattoo Heart" collection. Rihanna not only strengthened the visual component of the line, but also the conceptual idea to leave your mark, like a tattoo, on someone's heart. A portion of the line's proceeds were donated through UNICEF to children in Sub-Saharan Africa. Rihanna projected an image of both strength and philanthropy which reflected well on Gucci.

However, after Rihanna's assault, the celebrity's image has been tarnished, even though almost everyone would agree that this incident was Chris Brown's fault and she should not have to suffer for his actions. However, no company has yet offer to renew their endorsement deal. This is just one example of how companies simply will not risk tarnishing their brand image. There is very low tolerance for celebrity misbehavior. Even though Rihanna continues to speak out about the abuse she faced, her reconciliation with Chris puts her in a very bad position...

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.

Star Power & Women's Fashion

“Since half the people out there are inspired by celebrity, I think that if consumers see a star wearing a trend or new style, they’re more open to it.”

- Jerry Talamantes, Dillard’s Midwest

According to Cotton Inc.'s Lifestyle Monitor, which studies American attitudes and behavior toward apparel and homestyle furnishing, a new survey finds that "among all women, 26% cite fashion magazines, 18% cite TV shows and 12% say celebrities are their top sources for clothing ideas." In addition, women in the age group from 13-24 are more likely to get their ideas from these sources. As seen in the table below, the influence of star power begins to decrease as the woman gets older. However, fashion magazines and commercials/ad, both of which frequently star celebrities, do maintain a rather high rank as an idea source.

It is also interesting to see that American women, who shop at least three times a month, whether in the store or online are more likely to look to these sources when impulse buying: clothing ideas from fashion magazines (31% versus 21%), celebrities (16% versus 8%) and TV shows (21% versus 15%).

In addition to the Anna Sui Target clothing line, which was featured as a tie in with the hit show, Gossip Girl, this same marketing technique was used with Mad Men. Banana Republic sponsored a chance to win a walk-on role in an upcoming episode of Mad Men, which would come with a $1,000 gift certificate prize to the store, which carries classic workplace wardrobe items, like the white shirt and pencil skirt, styles which are often worn on the show.

The article observes that these tie-ins are becoming a regular marketing strategy: "Tom Julian, trend expert and president of Tom Julian Group, a brand consultancy in New York, says the 'Mad Men' and 'Gossip Girl' promotions are 'a solid illustration of integrated marketing with a cultural and style tie-in. If the time and merchandise is right and an organization can surround the consumer with product, messages and lifestyle cues, fashion trends resonate in a bigger and more effective way.'"