Celebrity endorsements have become commonplace in the average person’s life, yet some people consider them controversial. Endorsements are everywhere anybody looks in the 21st, but do people really pay attention to them? Celebrities are entitled to their own opinions and if they feel strongly about a certain product or are being handsomely payed to claim an interest in a said product, of course they will endorse that product. Celebrity endorsements are not a new idea. In fact, different methods of branding that involve celebrities have been around for over 250 years.

One of the first cases of celebrity endorsing dates back to the mid eighteenth century. According to Celebrity Endorsement- Through the Ages, by Kalyani Vemuri and T Phani Madhav, “The history of celebrity endorsement of products dates back to the 1760s. Josiah Wedgwood, the founder of the Wedgwood brand of pottery and chinaware, also called the father of the modern brand ‘;used royal endorsements and other marketing devices to create an aura around the name of his company that gave the brand a value far beyond the attributes of the product itself.” Whether or not some modern people feel endorsements from celebrities are wrong or unfair towards other businesses, this model for good business has allowed companies to be jolted into success.

Perhaps people who believe celebrity endorsements are bad simply believe it is just another way for big businesses to throw their money around and push out smaller, up-and-coming businesses. This, however, is just one thought of an uneducated person who does not believe in the value of capitalism; one has to spend money, to make money.

An article written in 2011 by Ryan Sager of Marketwatch.com discussed the benefits of using celebrity endorsements, and it would appear they do in fact aid in a company’s profits. “A new study, conditionally accepted for publication at the Journal of Advertising Research, looks at stock market valuation and sales data for a raft of athlete endorsements. The authors, Anita Elberse and Jeroen Verleun, find that while stocks go up roughly a quarter of a percentage point, on average, with a celebrity endorsement, sales for products endorsed by athletes go up by an average of 4 percent. What’s more, these sales boosts can be recharged by a career triumph — a Grand Slam for Roger Federer, an Olympic Gold Medal for Michael Phelps.”

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Celebrity endorsements may increase profit sales when the celebrity in question is favorable in the public eye, but what about when a celebrity’s status falls? The infamous Tiger Woods scandal of 2009 left a bad taste in the mouth of most of Woods’ company endorsers but one stood by the golfer through it all, Nike. Cbsnews.com released an article in 2010 that illustrated the effects of Tiger Woods’ fall from stardom on the athletic company Nike.

“From November 2009 to April 2010, we find that Nike made an extra revenue of $2.0 million from Tiger Woods’ endorsement effect which we estimate as additional $1.6 million in profit. From this, we conclude Nike’s decision not to join the likes of Accenture, AT&T and Gatorade was the correct decision,” stated CBS.

Apparently, even when most would think a celebrity endorsement would hurt a company rather than help it, the celebrities infamy still leads to a larger than average generation of sales.

Celebrity endorsements have been around for at least two and a half centuries and they will continue to grow in popularity as the world advances its technologies. Whether people love them or hate them, celebrity endorsements work well. They seem to have a beneficial effect on how well people remember the product or ideal that is being sold so there is virtually no reason as to why they would go away anytime soon. There is nothing wrong with a celebrity trying to pay their bills or a companies trying to make ends meat. Remember this next time you come across an ad showing Matthew McConaughey driving a Lincoln or Taylor Swift drinking a Diet Coke, they are just trying to earn a living.