If one were to think about it, advertisement and celebrities perform the same purpose in our culture, they represent a source of fantasy for us. It therefore makes absolute sense that the two would combine efforts to attempt to sell the masses a product by selling an appearance of happiness and contentment. After all, advertisement and Hollywood is all about marketing the allusion of the product or a person, not the reality of it.

In the end, it is this image that is of utmost importance in selling products in a consumer culture. Images of happy women with bouncy and full heads hair or joyous kids who got the toy or snack that they wanted is the backbone of marketing imagery. Celebrities provide a shortcut to achieve this effect, the thought that a certain product has the capacity to satiate one's appetite and thus lead to contentment and happiness. Celebrities are often presented as the image of perfection in our culture. Of course, little mention is made of the army of stylists and hair dressers who help make this happen just as little mention is made of the fact that the right toothpaste will not necessarily bring bliss.

Still, nothing is new about this. Even as early as the beginning of television, famous hosts and television personalities would endorse the products that were advertised on the program. Even now the phenomenon has gone international. What's more noteworthy about the contemporary use of celebrities in marketing is the number who do ads in foreign countries so as not to harm their cred in the US.
Still, advertisement and celebrity culture feed off one another. For marketers, a well placed celebrity appearance can speak volumes. For celebrities, advertising gigs can keep them in the public eye giving the attention so many of them crave.

Learn more about this author, Kim Barker.
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