Credible Sources, Attractive Sources

Consumer research indicates that credible sources usually enhance persuasion. Physically attractive sources are more persuasive, especially for sources that are likeable, hold celebrity status, or are similar to the target audience. The surrounding content of television programs, radio music, or magazine content also may enhance an ad’s credibility.

Celebrity endorsers, whether rock musicians or Michael Jordan, shape consumers’ interpretation of the ad and the product through meaning transfer-the process by which the meaning of one object (a rock song, for example) is transferred to another object, the product being advertised. Products take on some of the characteristics consumers associate with the endorsers or the music they hear in the ads.

When the endorser is trusted by consumers, they are more accepting of the ad claims, depending on how well the product and the endorser fit together. That’s one reason the Elton John ads endorsing Diet Coke work so well-he obviously needs the product and appears to really like it.

Everything Goes Better with Coke One of the most memorable television commercials of all time featured Elton John promoting Diet Coke. In the ad, Elton John plays a piano in a nightclub, joined by famous celebrities from the past. Using high tech recreation, Louis Armstrong blows a trumpet riff from a Diet Coke jingle as he stands next to John’s piano. Humphrey Bogart walks into the nightclub as though he is Rick Blaine, walking into his own club in Casablanca. James Cagney orders drinks and appears to smile at his modern lady companion as she rests her elbow on his shoulder. The shots of Bogart came from All Through the Night (1942), Armstrong was lifted from High Society (1956), and Cagney was heisted from The Roaring Twenties (1939) and Public Enemy (1931). Computers black out the background of the old movies frame by frame, keeping only the images of the stars, all now appearing to be in a contemporary setting.