Emily Raven’s blog  “Celebrity Cool Contagious” discusses the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements on brand success – something that I only really became aware of after the Tiger Woods scandal when the majority of his sponsors publicly dropped him to protect their company image.

The whole notion of celebrity endorsement seems incredibly risky. In my mind, as far as celebrities go, a 36-year-old professional golfer married, with children is about as stable and secure as they come. And yet we watched this man absolutely DESTROY his reputation in a matter of days. It seems almost foolish for company’s who have worked endlessly to plan and create a product to rest the success of it on a celebrity – a factor that you have virtually no control over.

To me a far more reliable route as far as commercials and brand awareness go would be a creative message strategy combined with unique execution style. For example Dollar Shave Club – a brand new company with the intention of simplifying razor purchases for men.

I find the commercial to be witty, straight to the point, and yet leave me wondering “…What just happened?”. What sets this commercial apart from others was its simplicity combined with unforeseen inappropriate language/references (that, unfortunately, caused me to laugh out loud in a silent study area). This advertising style may not be fitting for all company’s but I find it refreshing to see a business deviate from the dry and over-used celebrity endorsement strategy we are used to and try something different. After all it may prove to be just as effective while often being far less costly to produce.