The two crucial things an ad campaign has to accomplish are, in marketing lingo, recall and persuasion. Does the advertising lead you to remember the brand? And beyond that, does it make you more likely to buy it? The debate as to which is more important is never-ending, but you have to have both to succeed. Consumers, most of them, are cynical about advertising, and they're both smart enough and cynical enough to know that celebrity endorsers are paid very well for their services. So from the perspective of persuasion, celebrities are not hugely effective (in most cases; there have been exceptions). But recall--that's a whole 'nother story. Every brand wants to be top of mind to their target, and there are a LOT of brands in each product category, so that's not easy to accomplish. And ours being a hugely celebrity-focused society (I mean the US, where I live), there are very few ways to create recall that are more effective than a celebrity endorsement. So if someone who's not really into watches wants one, there's a good chance they'll say "what was that watch that Roger Federer wore at Wimbledon? Wasn't it a Rolex?" Or "weren't Adam Driver and Charlize Theron in that ad for Breitling I saw a while ago?" And off they go to the Rolex or the Breitling shop. Once there, all bets are off, of course, but at least the endorsed brand has a bit of a head start. That, though, is often all it takes.
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