There was a time when the mere appearance of a famous face in a commercial was enough to generate water-cooler conversation, back when water coolers were a thing and commercials were watched in real time. That era has passed, but the celebrity endorsement endures, adapting itself to whatever platform will have it.
This week brings a fresh batch of campaigns featuring well-known names attached to brands including GoDaddy, Marc Jacobs, and the video game Diablo IV, along with work from the athletic footwear maker On and something called Legora, which appears to be new enough that it still requires explanation. The running shoe company On, which has been building its marketing presence steadily since its founding in Switzerland in 2010, continues its push into American consciousness. (Whether American feet will follow remains, as always, the question.)
Separately, brands like Patagonia, Milani Cosmetics and Bogg Bag have drawn attention for campaigns emphasizing product quality rather than borrowed fame — a strategy that some in the industry have taken to calling "product-forward marketing," as if selling things based on what they actually do were a novel invention requiring its own terminology.
The celebrity approach and the product-quality approach represent two distinct theories of persuasion that have coexisted on Madison Avenue for decades, sometimes within the same holding company, occasionally within the same campaign. Neither has definitively won, which is perhaps why both remain employed.
What unites this week's work is less a creative throughline than a shared belief that someone, somewhere, is still paying attention to advertising — a faith that the industry has always required of its practitioners, even when the evidence is mixed.
Original story published in adage.com: "Best celebrity ads: GoDaddy, Legora, Marc Jacobs, Diablo IV, On - Ad Age"