Use of celebrity and non-celebrity persons in B2B advertisements: Effects on attention, recall, and hedonic and utilitarian attitudes

Abstract

Images of people are often featured in business-to-business print advertisements. In some cases, person images in B2B ads may be perceived as having little or no pragmatic purpose in promoting the brand or product. The current research examines the effects of the presence of a celebrity or non-celebrity person in a B2B print ad on attention to the ad, hedonic and utilitarian attitudes towards the ad, and on aided brand recall. An eye-tracking study featured three experimental B2B ad conditions (i.e., no person, non-celebrity person, and celebrity person) conducted with business managers. The findings of this study suggest that while the presence of a celebrity endorser causes managers to pay more attention to the ad, the increase in time focusing on the advertisement brings about more negative hedonic attitudes towards the ad. Further, a celebrity endorser can reduce utilitarian attitudes towards the ad. An ad featuring a non-celebrity produced the highest brand recall.