In fact, George Foreman is not even young anymore. At 54-years-old, he is long past the days of being heavyweight champion of the world, but where he reigns supreme is in the world of celebrity endorsements. As a spokesperson for Meineke and McDonald's, Foreman is better known for his endorsement of the Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine than he is as a championship boxer who fought toe to toe with the legendary Muhammad Ali. For the last decade, Foreman has single-handedly catapulted the average household-grilling product to worldwide sales of over US$ 375 million in grills in 2002 alone.

The endorsement collaboration between Foreman and Salton was an enormous investment, which proved to be worth the risk simply because of the credible and positive image Foreman brought to the brand. As a former heavyweight champion boxer, Foreman is plausibly interested in healthy cooking, and he packs an emotionally effective sales pitch: the honest man-next-door engaging in the honest pastime of grilling. His other qualities -- father, preacher, president and CEO of his own nonprofit youth organization, and Southerner (a quality found to be charming to the American consumer) -- are thought to add to the trust factor for consumers.

While the Foreman-Salton deal is an example of a celebrity endorsement branding marriage on the high road, there have also been endorsement deals that have quickly soured when the celebrity suddenly attracted the wrong kind of publicity.

“The biggest risk is the celebrity himself,” says Dr. Ying Fan, principal lecturer and marketing expert at the University of Lincoln in England. “Celebrity branding is all about the transfer of the value from the person to the product he endorses or stands for. There are two concerns here. The first is how long this could last. Can the person maintain his popularity (i.e., his performance or status ranking)? The lifecycle of celebrity popularity varies a lot. “The second concern is his private life -- personal integrity. If he is implicated in any kind of scandal, that would ruin the brand. Who would want to use Michael Jackson to brand their product?”

In fact, allegations of child molestation deeply affected Michael Jackson’s endorsement opportunities, perhaps the most high profile of which was his deal with Pepsi. Similarly former football champ and rental car spokesperson, O.J. Simpson, lost his lucrative contract with Hertz when he was charged with the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994. It is unlikely that Jackson or Simpson could ever command those types of offers again.

Some companies will try to use the bad publicity of a public figure or celebrity to market a product (porn star Jenna Jameson for Pony comes to mind), but this can be a very delicate line to walk and has as much to do with your brand strategy as the celebrity in question. Weight-loss program brand Jenny Craig lost points with the public when it hired an overweight Monica Lewinsky (you remember, former intern, etc., to President Bill Clinton) at reportedly US$ 1 million to lose over 50 pounds -- a deal she did not follow-through with.

Public opinion is often a heavy driver in a decision to drop a spokesperson. Conservative TV political commentator Bill O’Reilly lead a successful write-in campaign to get hip-hop sensation Ludacris dropped from Pepsi’s endorsement roster after publicly announcing that the artist was not the “right” caliber to serve as an image for the mega-soda brand because of his often raunchy lyrics. Signing bad boy Ozzy Osbourne next led to protests of hypocrisy from the hip-hop world, and Pepsi was forced to knock out a compromise. Historically very successful with celebrity endorsements, Pepsi’s occasionally unfortunate choices prove how delicate the whole arrangement between celebrity and brand really is.

While Salton and George Foreman continue to stand at the helm of brand awareness success, their collaboration is no doubt being studied closely by others hoping to achieve a perfect endorsement match. Brand strategists and ad execs struggle to sign celebrities or athletes who might actually use the brand on their “off” days, and not just tote the logo on camera or game days.

This requires marketers to look beyond the celebrity’s public status and understand the actual lifestyle. Foreman became the brand because the connection between the grill and him was plausible. He surpassed his own celebrity status as a boxer to become the believable, guy-next-door, cooking a satisfying healthy meal on a Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine.

“He has a well-chronicled history of enjoying food -- lots of it,” says Rich Kenah, director of marketing for Global Athletics and Marketing, a sports marketing firm in Boston. “So he is credible on the subject…. He’s a guy that always looks like he is having fun. If a heavyweight boxer can have fun cooking with a fat reducing grill, then it’s worth a try.”

That's what a well-managed celebrity endorsement comes down to -- the ability to convey to the target market that the celebrity is benefiting from the brand, and they will too.    

[2-Jun-2003]