Hire a celebrity and get their baggage too

It is obvious that the trend for using celebrities to endorse products to the masses isn’t going to go away (MW 4 February).

What marketers have to realise is that there will always be an underlying risk, as each celebrity comes pre-packaged with their own “baggage”, which marketers have no way of controlling.

All they can do is ensure that the chosen brand representative reflects the values of the brand and more importantly strikes the right messages with the audience they are trying to reach.

Too often celebrities appear to have been picked to endorse a brand because of what marketers believe to be right, rather than what they know to be right from consumer research.

Eddie O’Brien, account director, Nunwood