If Kate voted conservative would you? The role of celebrity endorsements in political party advertising

摘要

Purpose – This research has been conducted with the aim of determining if celebrity endorsers inudpolitical party advertising have a significant impact on UK voter intentions. The use of celebrityudendorsements is commonplace in the USA, but little is known about its effects in the UK. This researchudalso aims to incorporate the use of celebrity endorsements in political party advertising with theudpolitical salience construct. Political salience represents how prominent politics and political issues areudin the minds of the eligible voter.udDesign/methodology/approach – A 2 (endorser: celebrity; non-celebrity) £ 2 (political salience:udhigh; low) between-subjects factorial design experiment was used. The results show that celebrityudendorsements do play a significant role in attitudes towards the political advert, attitudes towards theudendorser and voter intention. However, this effect is significantly moderated by political salience.udFindings – The results show that low political salience respondents were significantly more likely toudvote for the political party when a celebrity endorser is used. However, the inverse effect is found forudhigh political salience respondents.udPractical implications – The results offer significant insights into the effect that celebrityudendorsers could have in future elections and the importance that political salience plays in theudeffectiveness of celebrity endorsement. If political parties are to target those citizens that do notudactively engage with politics then the use of celebrity endorsements would make a significant impact,udgiven the results of this research.udOriginality/value – This research would be of particular interest to political party campaigners asudwell as academics studying the effects of advertising and identity salience.