Effective spokespersons in a public service announcement

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to investigate the consequences of using national celebrities, local celebrities and disaster victims as spokespersons in a public service radio announcement (PSA) soliciting contributions for victims of Hurricane Katrina.Design/methodology/approach – Subjects were exposed to one of three public service announcements and were then asked to report their reactions to the messages. Differences in the self‐reported reactions of subjects were used to test a series of hypotheses regarding the effectiveness of the three different types of spokespersons.Findings – The paper finds that the hurricane victim was the most credible and believable spokesperson. The national celebrity, Ashlee Simpson, was the least credible and the least believable. The local celebrity was more credible and believable than the national celebrity, but no more so than the hurricane victim.Research limitations/implications – In this paper a small student sample was used in an experimental setting invol...