Self-Promotion and Celebrity Endorsements of Healthy Lifestyles

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Self-Promotion and Celebrity Endorsements of Healthy Lifestyles

In his book Celebrity and Power: Fame in Contemporary Culture, P. David Marshall states "The close scrutiny that is given to celebrities is to accentuate the possibility and potential for individuals to shape themselves unfettered by the constraints of a hierarchical society" (246). Therefore, celebrities are seen as role models for a lifestyle that might never be fully attainable by the average person, but can be imitated. What is ironic then is that following a celebrity-endorsed lifestyle does not create individuality, but reduces it. While celebrities endorse products, they also appear in advertisements which promote a healthy lifestyle where through the abstinence from vices such as smoking and drinking, to the consumption of healthy products such as milk, or the changing of habits to create a more environmentally friendly world. While these advertisements may have noble intentions an examination of the linguistic messages, iconic messages, and the target audiences, shows that the celebrities who appear in advertisements promoting healthy lifestyle choices are also promoting their own creative projects at the same time.

An interesting example of how celebrities promote themselves while promoting a healthy lifestyle is seen in an advertisement sponsored by Budweiser beer and featuring the band *NSYNC. Appearing in the May 14, 2001 issue of People Magazine, the ad encourages parents to talk to their children about underage drinking. If parents visit the website and read about the program, they can enter to win a family trip to Washington D.C. to see the group in concert. The linguistic messages work to not only promote the cause, but the band and the beer....

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...sement does achieve some level of cross promotion because of the audience it is reaching.

In conclusion it is evident that whether explicit or less obvious, there is always some element of cross-promotion in advertisements featuring celebrities. Although the celebrities may genuinely care about the causes which they are promoting it is obvious that their very presence in the advertisement draws attention to themselves and allows the reader to make connections to any creative projects they are working on at the moment. The advertisements work in part because the celebrities featured are those in the public eye at the time of publishing and that they are easily recognizable. The linguistic message, the iconic messages (both coded and non-coded) work together along with a strategic targeting of similar audiences to promote more that one thing in the advertisement.

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