Patterns of Celebrity Endorsement in Fashion Magazine “The MAG”

Abstract

The practice of celebrity endorsement, precisely the testimonial method, has become an essential tool in modern advertising around the globe. In this technique, celebrities like film and drama actors, actresses, models, sports celebrities, politicians, and religious scholars are widely portrayed in advertisements to attract masses of consumer products advertised. According to previous studies, this technique is used in all sorts of advertisements (ads) such as radio commercials, Television, cinema, billboards, online, newspapers, and magazine ads. Therefore, this study aims to examine the patterns of celebrity endorsement in “The MAG” weekly fashion magazine published in Pakistan. The researchers collected data by applying a quantitative content analysis approach of a total of 218 advertisements selected purposively from the last six months' publication of “The MAG” magazine in 2018. The overall results revealed that most of the advertisements occupied full-page space. The majority of the advertised products were for females consumers and were related to cosmetics. Significantly, findings showed that most of the ads do not portray celebrities. However, a significant quantity of celebrities portrayed in the advertisements were females. Besides, most of the celebrities have a national geographical location, and the higher number of celebrities portrayed are associated with the profession of acting and modeling. Though this study is conducted about the six months publications of the “The MAG” fashion magazines, such types of studies should be conducted on general category magazines and also on the advertisement for the newspaper advertisements in Pakistan.