Factors Governing Students' Perception of Celebrity Advertising

The use of celebrities in advertisements is not new in India. In the late 1970's actor Shammi Kapoor used to advertise for the 'Paan Parag' brand. In the early eighties popular cricketers like Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar used to advertise for Pamolive and Cherry Canvas Shoe Polish (among others) respectively. In today's era of advertisement clutter, some studies have found out that 25% of all the advertisements published or aired feature celebrities.

In the year 2005, actor Shah Rukh Khan has signed up a deal worth Rs 100 crore with the ' Sunfeast brand of food products from ITC. The contract made him the highest paid brand ambassador in India. Most of the popular celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, Aishwarya Rai etc are earning in crores from the brands they are endorsing. But is it justified for the companies to go for such huge investments? This was the problem scenario against which the study was planned. The objective of the study was to find out the factors which govern the perception of students (pursuing higher education) about celebrity advertising.