In the wake of the Paula Deen scandal, the question emerges: Will brands learn anything from this debacle?
Bill McKeveny, Vice President of Brand Development at Conversation, a New York-based advertising agency, thinks that brands can learn a lesson and change their behavior.
“I think some brands will study more carefully what these celebrity personalities are like behind the camera,” he said.
But Ryan Lewis, an entertainment lawyer with experience in brand endorsement terminations, suspects that little will change in the endorsement process because there are many privacy issues involved in researching a celebrity endorser. Also, the contracts usually make it very easy for the brand to sever ties with the endorser if it deems his or her actions to be “morally reprehensible,” or simply perceived that way.
Lewis said that brands are seldom hurt monetarily as a result of a celebrity endorser’s missteps because the brand can terminate the relationship immediately and, even if the brand is aware of the celebrity’s unflattering behavior, brands can usually hide behind the excuse that they were caught off guard just as the public was.
Of course, the Paula Deen scandal is not an isolated event. Within the last several years, major brands have dropped celebrity endorsers like Tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong for their unseemly behavior.
While McKeveny thinks that the Deen scandal may lead brands to become more careful with whom they associate, he also noted that when a spokesperson does something out of character with the company’s ideology, it allows the company to clarify and highlight its belief system in a way that may ingratiate itself further with its audience.
“Events like these may give brands the opportunity to make something good come out of something bad,” McKeveny said.
A perfect example of this happened this week, McKeveny agreed, when anti-gay marriage remarks were made by the author of “Ender’s Game,” which Lionsgate has based a movie on. This gave Lionsgate the opportunity to make it clear where they stood on the gay marriage; they released a statement shortly after this became public stating:
“As proud longtime supporters of the LGBT community… and a company that is proud to have recognized same-sex unions and domestic partnerships within its employee benefits policies for many years, we obviously do not agree with the personal views of Orson Scott Card.”
Lionsgate will also host a LGBT benefit premiere for the movie.
Given the brouhaha over Deen, are celebrity endorsers that important anyway?
Dan Spiegel, Associate Director of Strategy at Interbrand, an international branding firm, said that when working with clients, he will often ask the client to imagine who the brand would be if it were a person.
So assigning human qualities to a brand is definitely a useful thing, but Spiegel warned, “there’s a risk in aligning yourself very closely with a person because people are imperfect.”
He also noted that using celebrity spokespeople can sometimes be perceived as a weakness, a quick way of gaining qualities by association.
“Until Apple’s use of celebrities to promote Siri, it would never use celebrities because its brand was so strong,” Spiegel said.
When asked if celebrity endorsers are important for brands, McKeveny said: “Absolutely.” And he pointed to the new deal between Jay-Z and Samsung.
“Samsung is leveraging Jay-Z’s notoriety and will now have incredible access to all his fans,” he said. “When done correctly, celebrity endorsements can be a very powerful tool.”
And it seems that even if the celebrity does something distasteful, it’s not a scarlet letter for the brand.
— Todd Stone is a business journalist who has written for publications including Inc. Magazine, AdAge and Business Insider. He is also one half of Stone and Stone, a stand-up comedy duo, and is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism.
