Celebrity spokesperson and brand congruence

Conventional wisdom regarding the matching of spokesperson and brand in advertising is empirically tested. Within the theoretical framework of social cognition, celebrity-brand congruence is found to enhance effectiveness of advertising. a) Recall is found to be enhanced when the celebrity and brand are matched, as predicted by the filtering model. b) Transfer of affect from spokesperson to brand is found to be facilitated when the two are matched. c) Affect toward the brand is also found to be higher when brand and spokesperson are matched. The usefulness and importance of schemas in information processing of advertising are discussed.