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How Are Celebrity Ambassadors Still Relevant? · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  What do Kendall Jenner, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Jessica
• 0:03
  Simpson all have in common? They aren't singers.
• 0:06
  They aren't actors. They're not all models, but they
• 0:09
  were all celebrity ambassadors for one iconic brand, Proactive.
• 0:14
  Proactive was the skin care brand for tweens and teens
• 0:18
  through the 2000s and early 20 tens.
• 0:21
  It's three-step system promised to clear acne and help consumers
• 0:24
  overcome any skin related insecurities.
• 0:27
  But the brand wasn't legendary for its products.
• 0:30
  Rather, it was legendary for its marketing.
• 0:32
  Over the years, Proactiv managed to snag many a list celebrities
• 0:36
  to represent the brand. These campaigns stuck to a clear
• 0:39
  formula. The ambassador would first share
• 0:42
  their personal experiences with acne before raving about
• 0:45
  Proactiv's products. Then an opportunity to buy
• 0:48
  Proactiv's three-step system at a discounted price of 1995 would
• 0:53
  pop up. These ads were essentially
• 0:55
  infomercials, but they worked. In 2015, the skin care brand
• 0:59
  reportedly hit $1 billion in sales, with much of that success
• 1:02
  credited to its celebrity ambassadors.
• 1:05
  While we may look back fondly on the insanity that was
• 1:08
  Proactive's ads, the industry has changed significantly since
• 1:12
  then. Replicating Proactive's
• 1:14
  infomercial LED approach wouldn't exactly land in 2026.
• 1:18
  In a pop culture landscape where influencers and user generated
• 1:21
  content reigned supreme, this approach feels like a bygone
• 1:25
  era. Yet many brands continue to
• 1:27
  splurge on celebrity ambassadors, so we wanted to
• 1:30
  explore why. In this episode, we discussed
• 1:34
  the perceived value of celebrity endorsements, how brands have
• 1:37
  had to adapt the strategy to the social media era, and attempt to
• 1:41
  answer the question, does Gen. Z even respond to celebrity
• 1:45
  endorsements? Or is this a marketing strategy
• 1:48
  better left in the past? From Centennial World, this is
• 1:52
  Infinite Scroll, a podcast about Internet culture, the creator
• 1:56
  economy, and how social media is shaping Gen.
• 1:59
  Z Welcome back to Infinite Scroll everyone, and thank you
• 2:03
  so much to our sponsor for today, Britta, our favorites.
• 2:09
  You already know Britta has been keeping us hydrated for the past
• 2:12
  year. Drinking fresh filtered water
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  every day has become an essential part of my routine
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  since then and one of the easiest ways to look after
• 2:20
  myself. When you spend as much time
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  online as I do, sometimes you fall into comparison traps and
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  completely spin out. In those moments, it can be easy
• 2:29
  to forget what is actually important, and Britta gets that.
• 2:33
  This year, they're embracing all things self-care alongside a new
• 2:37
  brand ambassador, Gen. Z icon Millie Bobby Brown.
• 2:40
  Staying hydrated with Britta's filtered water is a simple habit
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  that can keep us balanced. And when we're feeling clear
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  minded, calm and confident, we can actually own our thing by
• 2:50
  doing what's right for us. Thank you to Britta for
• 2:53
  sponsoring this episode and for the reminder that you should
• 2:56
  filter your water, not yourself. Today, it feels like almost
• 3:03
  every A Lister is fronting a brand, whether it's for a
• 3:06
  fashion house, a beauty company, or a luxury perfume.
• 3:10
  We have become accustomed to seeing these all too familiar
• 3:13
  faces on billboards or in commercials.
• 3:15
  To some, this may be an indication of capitalism gone
• 3:18
  wild. To others, maybe those in
• 3:21
  advertising, it may be an interesting brand exercise or
• 3:24
  case study. But to the fangirls, it's just
• 3:26
  another way for their favorite celebrities to build cultural
• 3:29
  and financial capital. We saw this in 2021, for
• 3:32
  instance, with BTS. The K Pop Collective reportedly
• 3:35
  made between 9:00 and $10 million with the launch of
• 3:39
  McDonald's BTS meal. The collaboration sparked a
• 3:42
  worldwide frenzy, with some stores even forced to shut down
• 3:45
  due to demand. And that's just one example.
• 3:48
  Celebrity endorsements are an extremely common practice and a
• 3:51
  significant financial investment.
• 3:54
  And in a world where corporations are gaining
• 3:56
  influence and power, it's valuable to discuss their
• 3:58
  decision making and marketing strategies.
• 4:01
  But first, we have to go back to basics.
• 4:03
  There is, of course, a difference between celebrity
• 4:06
  endorsements and ambassadorships, According to an
• 4:09
  academic journal article by Karen Page, Manish Ganwar and
• 4:12
  Rajdeep Gruul, the authors describe a celebrity endorsement
• 4:15
  as quote a form of advertising strategy in which a famous or
• 4:19
  well known person uses her or his social status to promote a
• 4:23
  good service or idea. With this definition, a
• 4:25
  celebrity ambassadorship is a type of.
• 4:28
  This is when a public figure is hired to represent and embody a
• 4:31
  brand's values to increase awareness and sales.
• 4:34
  Often this is a longer term partnership designed to transfer
• 4:37
  the celebrities positive association and credibility to
• 4:40
  the general public. For the sake of this episode, we
• 4:43
  will use the terms celebrity endorsement and ambassadorship
• 4:46
  interchangeably. It should be noted that this
• 4:48
  strategy is actually nothing new.
• 4:50
  Notable figures have attached themselves to brands and vice
• 4:53
  versa for centuries. From our research, one of the
• 4:56
  earliest examples of celebrity ambassadorship dates back to the
• 4:59
  18th century, when a Potter slash entrepreneur named Josiah
• 5:03
  Wedgwood used endorsements from the British royal family to
• 5:06
  promote his dishware. Another example was British
• 5:09
  socialite and stage actress Lily Langtry.
• 5:12
  In 1882, Lily became the first woman to be compensated for
• 5:15
  appearing in pair soap advertisements, essentially
• 5:18
  inventing the celebrity ambassadorship central to
• 5:21
  marketing today. So if these partnerships have
• 5:24
  been around for this long, celebrity endorsements must be.
• 5:28
  But why and how? We will discuss this throughout
• 5:30
  the episode and share some theories about youth audiences
• 5:33
  specifically, but it is first helpful to look at some existing
• 5:37
  models and studies as a basis. One example is the Source
• 5:40
  Credibility model developed by academics at Yale University.
• 5:44
  This model explores what makes communication effective,
• 5:47
  hypothesizing that a message's persuasiveness is influenced by
• 5:50
  the credibility of its source. You can easily apply this to the
• 5:53
  world of celebrity endorsements. We acknowledge that a celebrity
• 5:56
  ambassadorship should not realistically be considered
• 6:00
  automatically credible by the masses.
• 6:02
  In general, when a celebrity promotes a product, they may not
• 6:05
  have the expertise or knowledge to definitively say 1 product is
• 6:08
  better than the other. Justin Bieber as a spokesperson
• 6:11
  for Proactive in 2010 is a case in point.
• 6:14
  What would a 16 year old boy know about the skin care
• 6:16
  industry? Nevertheless, his fans saw him
• 6:19
  as a credible source because of his celebrity.
• 6:21
  The reporting from this time makes that clear.
• 6:23
  According to a 2011 Salon piece, Proactive's total revenue was
• 6:27
  approximate $1.5 billion that year.
• 6:30
  Granted, that's not entirely because of Justin Bieber, but he
• 6:33
  definitely contributed to the brand's awareness and sales.
• 6:36
  Ultimately, the credibility that someone like Justin Bieber has
• 6:39
  is twofold. First, it partly stems from the
• 6:41
  parasocial relationship that many of us build with a public
• 6:44
  figure. We inherently trust them, but it
• 6:46
  also comes from the way we view celebrities.
• 6:49
  Capitalism and neoliberalism have pushed us to believe that
• 6:52
  fame, money, and even beauty are the keys to contentment.
• 6:56
  As a result, we worship these A listers.
• 6:59
  We see them as all knowing, credible and trustworthy sources
• 7:02
  because they achieved what most of us cannot as academics.
• 7:05
  Noella Michael Thomas, Zoego Ramsey and Ian Michael explain
• 7:09
  quote Celebrities don't have brand specific knowledge, but
• 7:12
  they are perceived as such because of their demigod status.
• 7:15
  Of course, whether that's a good or a bad thing is a different
• 7:18
  question. Picking up on the beauty factor
• 7:20
  brings us to another interesting explanation.
• 7:23
  Academic work has argued that physically attractive
• 7:25
  celebrities enhance positive attitudes towards celebrity
• 7:28
  endorsed advertisements. This feeds into that what is
• 7:31
  beautiful is good bias that was proposed back in the 1970s.
• 7:35
  Later work expanded on this phenomenon, with the source
• 7:38
  attractiveness model being one example.
• 7:40
  To put it simply, a communicator's persuasive power
• 7:42
  is enhanced by their attractiveness under this model.
• 7:45
  It should be noted that this kind of attractiveness goes
• 7:48
  beyond physical beauty and refers to how appealing or
• 7:51
  relatable the sources to the target audience.
• 7:53
  But to say that credibility and attractiveness are everything
• 7:57
  would or simplify this phenomenon.
• 7:59
  The value of a celebrity endorsement can also be
• 8:01
  determined by what has come to be known as the matchup
• 8:04
  hypothesis, the idea that there should be a natural fit between
• 8:07
  the brand, the celebrity endorser, and the audience.
• 8:10
  The audience factor is always tricky, though.
• 8:13
  While a brand may have a target market or an ideal consumer,
• 8:16
  there may be many competing factors to consider, and one of
• 8:19
  the most significant is culture. Studies have shown that some
• 8:22
  cultural backgrounds are more receptive to celebrity
• 8:24
  endorsements than others. One paper exploring this concept
• 8:28
  uses the Power Distance belief framework, which the authors
• 8:31
  describe as quote the degree of power disparity that people in a
• 8:34
  culture expect and accept. Given that celebrities occupy a
• 8:37
  higher social status and wield significant cultural power, the
• 8:41
  authors argue that a person's willingness to accept celebrity
• 8:44
  endorsements can be context dependent.
• 8:46
  This plays out differently across the world.
• 8:48
  Throughout the paper, the authors mention examples of
• 8:50
  countries that may be more willing to embrace this kind of
• 8:53
  marketing, such as South Korea and India, which both have their
• 8:56
  own celebrity ecosystem in K pop and Bollywood.
• 8:59
  But where there is a cultural divide, there might also be a
• 9:02
  generational one. Every marketing publication and
• 9:05
  TikTok trend forecaster seems to have a take on Gen.
• 9:08
  Z, whether it's why this demographic loves brain rot or
• 9:11
  how they differ from every generation that came before
• 9:14
  them. Within this discourse, one topic
• 9:16
  that comes up here and there is how Gen.
• 9:18
  Z feels about celebrity marketing and endorsements.
• 9:21
  More often than not, the conversation skews towards
• 9:23
  influencers rather than mainstream celebrities, which is
• 9:26
  exactly why we wanted to to focus on the latter.
• 9:29
  Within this discourse, there seems to be a genuine debate
• 9:31
  around how Gen. Z responds to celebrity
• 9:33
  endorsement. 1 central question pops up, is there still a place
• 9:37
  for the classic celebrity ambassadorship in the age of the
• 9:40
  creator? Some experts say no, and they
• 9:42
  make a pretty convincing case. There are three key points worth
• 9:46
  discussing here. The rise of UGC, user generated
• 9:49
  content, marketing fatigue and the death of the PR machine.
• 9:53
  Let's begin with how social media and the creator economy
• 9:55
  have fundamentally changed the marketing lens.
• 9:57
  Escape. We have covered this in depth in
• 9:59
  past episodes, so it's not worth revisiting in its entirety.
• 10:03
  The short version is this Social media has democratized virality,
• 10:07
  and in doing so, it is also democratized endorsements.
• 10:10
  Audiences no longer exclusively receive recommendations from
• 10:14
  stars and experts, they get them from regular people who often
• 10:17
  feel more relatable and accessible.
• 10:19
  The rise of UGC has enabled the average person to share their
• 10:22
  recommendations with the masses and has opened an entirely new
• 10:26
  marketplace of opinion and influence.
• 10:28
  Some data reflects what the shift means for celebrity
• 10:30
  endorsements specifically. A headline from The Economic
• 10:33
  Times puts it simply, celebrity endorsements fall 22% in 2025 as
• 10:38
  brands shift to influencers. The next factor we mentioned is
• 10:42
  marketing fatigue. Gen.
• 10:43
  Z has grown up in arguably the most oversaturated marketing
• 10:46
  environment in history, bombarded by advertising across
• 10:50
  every content Ave. whether it's TV, streaming, or social media.
• 10:53
  This has definitely taken its toll.
• 10:55
  We see this clearly in viral trends like going analog, which
• 10:59
  we discussed at the beginning of the year here.
• 11:01
  Increasing numbers of young people are hoping to step back
• 11:04
  from digital life, with many arguing that online spaces have
• 11:07
  become exhausting and genuinely harmful for mental health.
• 11:10
  At the same time, though, Jen said has become so accustomed to
• 11:13
  this environment that they have also become very good at tuning
• 11:17
  it out. Even when they don't fully go
• 11:19
  analog, they can essentially ignore what they don't want to
• 11:22
  see, and often that's branded content.
• 11:25
  Pulling from Youth Insights I Hate Ads report from last year,
• 11:28
  72% of Gen. Z feel they are exposed to
• 11:31
  advertising very often or almost constantly.
• 11:34
  In response, 74% say they skip ads and 53% say they ignore them
• 11:39
  entirely. These high rates of
• 11:41
  disengagement have ultimately contributed to the rise of rage
• 11:44
  bait and click bait marketing as brands and creators push harder
• 11:48
  and harder to cut through. And lastly, there is the PR
• 11:51
  machine. Digital natives like Gen.
• 11:52
  Z and Gen. Alpha are well aware of how
• 11:54
  marketing works thanks to platforms like TikTok beginning
• 11:58
  regular people and pulling back the curtain on how this content
• 12:00
  is made. TikTok has made it harder for
• 12:03
  corporate feeling endorsements to land authentically because
• 12:06
  audience know what they can see behind the scenes, and arguably,
• 12:09
  that's more interesting. In Youth Insights report, only
• 12:12
  16% of Gen. Zed disagreed with the statement
• 12:15
  that ads are boring, an indication that traditional
• 12:18
  advertising formats are struggling to stand out amid the
• 12:20
  varied content Gen. Zed consumes every day.
• 12:23
  It is worth noting though, that this media savviness does have
• 12:26
  its limits. The same generation that prides
• 12:29
  itself on seeing through the PR machine can also be quick to
• 12:32
  assume that everything is manufactured or inauthentic,
• 12:35
  sometimes to the point of conspiracy.
• 12:38
  So between the rise of UGC, the rise of marketing fatigue, and a
• 12:42
  generation that has grown up knowing exactly how the sausage
• 12:45
  is made, there is a case that celebrity endorsements have lost
• 12:48
  their interest among young audiences.
• 12:50
  But there is a flip side. Gen.
• 12:52
  Z is extremely invested in pop culture and celebrity, and a big
• 12:56
  part of that is because they are the demographic currently
• 12:59
  driving culture. Many of the most influential
• 13:01
  celebrities right now are the ones selling out stadiums and
• 13:05
  starring in some of the most watched films and shows of the
• 13:07
  moment. While these figures remain
• 13:09
  aspirational, they are also peers for Gen.
• 13:12
  Z consumers, or something close to it.
• 13:14
  These celebrities have grown up in the same time as them, often
• 13:17
  sharing the same reference points in humor.
• 13:19
  It makes sense that there would be a natural affinity between
• 13:22
  these A listers and their Gen. Z audiences.
• 13:25
  This is only intensified by the fact that so many in this
• 13:27
  generation grew up with social media and with parasocial
• 13:31
  relationships as a result. Take a moment to think about how
• 13:34
  youth audiences treat a list celebrities.
• 13:36
  Ever since COVID-19, what might once have been relegated to
• 13:40
  specific fandoms has become standard behavior like dressing
• 13:43
  up to go to the cinema or participating in the so-called
• 13:46
  Ticketmaster War when trying to get concert tickets.
• 13:49
  We also see this in language used online.
• 13:51
  Terms like the Kia Asylum and reheating nachos are phrases
• 13:55
  that originated on Stan and black Twitter and have now
• 13:59
  crossed over into everyday Internet vernacular.
• 14:01
  So with parasocial relationships and fandom culture going
• 14:04
  mainstream, Jen said, is in theory open to and appreciative
• 14:08
  of celebrity ambassadorships and endorsements, especially when it
• 14:11
  involves their fave. If anything, their investment in
• 14:14
  these figures creates a particular kind of receptiveness
• 14:17
  that the negative argument underestimates.
• 14:20
  We found a similar sentiment in some anecdotes our listener sent
• 14:23
  in ahead of this episode. We set up a Google form and gave
• 14:26
  participants an opportunity to answer questions on celebrity
• 14:29
  endorsements, specifically how they feel about them and whether
• 14:32
  they find them memorable or trustworthy.
• 14:34
  It is worth noting upfront that our sample size is not
• 14:37
  generalized, but we thought it would be a useful way to
• 14:40
  contextualize and build on our discussion.
• 14:42
  When asked whether a celebrity endorsement has ever influenced
• 14:45
  their purchasing behavior, over 60% said they never bought a
• 14:48
  product off the back of one, but it did peak their interest.
• 14:51
  Comparatively, 15% said they had gone on to purchase a product
• 14:55
  and 21% said a celebrity endorsement had never influenced
• 14:59
  them in any way. What is interesting here is that
• 15:01
  the majority response speaks to something that will keep coming
• 15:04
  up through this episode. Celebrity endorsements may not
• 15:07
  be closing sales the way they once did, but they can still get
• 15:10
  people's attention. That was reflected in our
• 15:13
  survey, too. Looking at famous figures
• 15:15
  specifically, over half the respondents categorized
• 15:17
  celebrity endorsements as a memorable form of marketing,
• 15:21
  compared to 15% who said the same about influencer
• 15:24
  endorsements. Approximately 2/3 of
• 15:26
  participants said UGC was also memorable, indicating the
• 15:30
  continued power of that kind of content.
• 15:32
  As for what makes a celebrity endorsement memorable, a theme
• 15:35
  came up repeatedly, and that was humor.
• 15:38
  One participant, Kaylin, told us she specifically remembered
• 15:41
  Michael Cera's collaboration with Sarah V because it was,
• 15:44
  quote, so funny and clever. The skin care brand collaborated
• 15:47
  with the actor on an iconic campaign two years ago, with
• 15:50
  Michael Cera joking that he was personally behind the brand
• 15:52
  given, well, his last name. Quote I was already a Cera VE
• 15:56
  user, but the campaign made me engage with the brand more than
• 15:59
  before, she tells us. Another example worth mentioning
• 16:02
  is Sabrina Carpenter's ambassadorship with Redkin.
• 16:04
  In 2024, Sabrina became the hair care brand's first global
• 16:08
  ambassador, fronting the Acidic Bonding Concentrate collection.
• 16:11
  This was a perfect matchup at the time because Sabrina had
• 16:14
  become completely synonymous with her bouncy blonde hair and
• 16:17
  perfect curtain bangs. What really made it land was the
• 16:20
  content and creative approach. With songs like Nonsense and
• 16:23
  Taste and her discography, It is no secret that Sabrina loves in
• 16:27
  innuendo. The campaign leaned directly
• 16:30
  into that. The first round of content
• 16:32
  centered around Sabrina telling audiences that everyone quote
• 16:35
  deserves a better bang, referring to her hair.
• 16:38
  Of course, Redkin doubled down on this a year later with their
• 16:41
  Leave It In Film continuing the tone in the original campaign.
• 16:44
  Social media users responded favorably, appreciating that the
• 16:47
  partnership felt true to her brand rather than like a paid
• 16:51
  placement. Some were critical feeling like
• 16:53
  the innuendo LED approach cater to the male gaze, which is a
• 16:56
  critique that is often leveled against Sabrina.
• 16:58
  Aside from the humor, several participants noted that
• 17:01
  longevity makes a celebrity partnership particularly
• 17:04
  memorable. 1 listener Madison pointed to Ben Affleck's Dunkin'
• 17:08
  Donuts commercial, which aired during the Super Bowl.
• 17:10
  Another Shelby pointed to what we are calling the Beats
• 17:13
  epidemic within the 2000s and twenty 10s Music videos, as she
• 17:17
  writes, quote the era of the Beats headphones in every music
• 17:20
  video comes to mind. It was like a guaranteed hit on
• 17:23
  a music video bingo card. I have been a Lady Gaga stand
• 17:26
  for like 15 years and I remember needing the Heartbeats by Lady
• 17:30
  Gaga headphones by Beats by Dre. Now, all of these are pretty
• 17:34
  positive associations with these partnerships, but another factor
• 17:37
  that makes celebrity endorsements memorable is
• 17:40
  obviously when they go wrong. Arguably the most famous
• 17:43
  example, and one that came up in our survey as noted by Madison,
• 17:47
  is Kendall Jenner's 2017 Pepsi commercial.
• 17:50
  We are probably all familiar with this one, but in case you
• 17:53
  forgot, in the ad, Kendall stepped out of a photo shoot to
• 17:56
  join a protest before handing a police officer a can of Pepsi.
• 18:00
  And then everything just seemed fine.
• 18:03
  Users claimed that Kendall and the company were trivializing
• 18:06
  protest moments, particularly BLM, where Pepsi quickly pulled
• 18:11
  the ad. The fact that we're still
• 18:12
  talking about this ad almost 10 years later is a case in point
• 18:17
  in saying that leaving any kind of impression has become
• 18:20
  increasingly difficult for brands.
• 18:21
  As we have briefly touched on earlier, we put it down to the
• 18:24
  oversaturation of the digital landscape, but it's also because
• 18:28
  trust in marketing in general is pretty abysmal.
• 18:31
  Referencing Youth Insights I Hate Ads report again,
• 18:34
  traditional advertising ranked 5th in terms of trustworthiness,
• 18:38
  with only 21% describing it as both effective and trustworthy.
• 18:42
  Some of the categories ranked above it were recommendations
• 18:44
  from friends and peers, Youtubers and podcasters, media
• 18:48
  outlets and online commentators. We found something similar with
• 18:51
  our own survey results. We asked respondents to rank
• 18:54
  their trust in different types of promotion on A5 point scale,
• 18:58
  and regular consumers came out on top, with almost 2/3 of
• 19:01
  participants ranking them in the top 2 categories.
• 19:04
  Meanwhile, trust in celebrities and influencers was notably
• 19:07
  lower. Even though influencers are
• 19:09
  perceived as somewhat untrustworthy among our
• 19:11
  audience, a majority of participants noted that their
• 19:14
  inclusion indicates how the industry has changed.
• 19:17
  The pool of quote UN quote appropriate celebrities for
• 19:19
  ambassadorships has expanded to include content creators.
• 19:23
  Emma Chamberlain was named brand ambassador for Lancome in 2023.
• 19:27
  Alex Earl became Hero Cosmetics brand ambassador in 2024.
• 19:31
  Both These women are obviously giants with an Internet culture,
• 19:34
  so it isn't unusual to see them fronting a brand.
• 19:37
  But As for celebrities who did not come up in traditional ways,
• 19:41
  it shows how much times have changed on this evolution. 1
• 19:45
  respondent named Maddie wrote quote.
• 19:47
  I think brands have definitely altered their celebrity budgets,
• 19:50
  allocating more budget for influencers.
• 19:52
  I do think that influencer culture will die out at some
• 19:55
  point, whether that be tomorrow or in 10 years, I'm not sure.
• 19:58
  But celebrity and brand marketing seems to continue to
• 20:01
  be alive and thriving. Honestly, I don't think brands
• 20:04
  have much of A choice as to changing their celebrity
• 20:06
  marketing strategies. They're just a.
• 20:08
  Adapting to what the market currently wants.
• 20:10
  With that, it's clear the current market is defined by
• 20:13
  distrust, which is unfortunate for many marketers.
• 20:16
  There are many reasons for this, but one chronically online
• 20:19
  factor that is often overlooked is the rise of watchdog and
• 20:23
  update accounts like Este Laundry and Diet Prada.
• 20:25
  If you're a regular listener of Mini Scroll and Infinite Scroll,
• 20:28
  you will already be familiar with these accounts.
• 20:30
  They rose to prominence through the 20 tens, with Este Laundry
• 20:34
  and Diet Prada shedding light on industry missteps and scandals
• 20:37
  across beauty and fashion. What made these accounts
• 20:40
  groundbreaking was the fact that they created a Direct Line from
• 20:43
  consumers to brands, holding them accountable in a way that
• 20:46
  had never really existed before. As Awashi Victor puts it for
• 20:49
  days to quote, for the first time ever, social media gave
• 20:52
  consumers a platform to speak directly to companies about the
• 20:55
  need for wider shade ranges, cultural appropriation, body
• 20:59
  positivity, and even address toxic work culture.
• 21:03
  From covering bullying in the beauty industry to controversial
• 21:06
  celebrity collaborations, Este Laundry and Diet Prada built
• 21:09
  their followings on honesty and accuracy.
• 21:12
  In an age where transparency and truthfulness have become central
• 21:15
  to a brand's reputation, these watchdog accounts have proven
• 21:18
  that they can make or break campaigns.
• 21:20
  So much so that Dolce and Gabbana filed to sue Diet Prada
• 21:23
  for defamation in March 2021. As for Este Laundry, the account
• 21:28
  did go dark in 2023, only recently returning because they
• 21:31
  felt their mission to call it corporations was still
• 21:33
  necessary. They explained why in a
• 21:35
  conversation with Dazed Quote. By 2020 Free, we weren't feeling
• 21:38
  the same sense of purpose or excitement we had when we first
• 21:41
  started the account. The beauty space had changed,
• 21:44
  public sentiment around accountability, culture was
• 21:46
  shifting, and we weren't sure if what we were doing still had a
• 21:49
  place. So we decided to take a step
• 21:51
  back and only return if it ever felt right.
• 21:54
  In an era of seemingly decreasing representation and
• 21:57
  the vilification of DEI, it makes sense that they felt the
• 22:00
  call to return at this particular moment in time, with
• 22:03
  essay laundry and diet product paving the way for call out
• 22:06
  culture. Gen.
• 22:07
  Z has come of age in a world where it is normal to hold
• 22:09
  brands accountable when they are not being inclusive or standing
• 22:12
  for something bigger. This framing of Gen.
• 22:14
  Z as a socially conscious generation has been a topic of
• 22:17
  discussion since 2020. Since then, that reputation has
• 22:21
  fractured somewhat with the return of more conservative
• 22:23
  values, Gen. Z men supporting candidates like
• 22:26
  Donald Trump, and the growing popularity of trends like trad
• 22:29
  wives. But it does seem this mentality
• 22:31
  holds up to some degree. Or at the very least, it's how
• 22:34
  brands are still approaching A demographic that remains genuine
• 22:38
  and difficult to reach. Consider Britta's new campaign
• 22:41
  with Millie Bobby Brown as its global ambassador, for an
• 22:43
  example. Over the years, Britta has
• 22:45
  really embraced more purposeful messaging, and it's clear how
• 22:48
  Millie is framing her ambassadorship.
• 22:50
  Rather than simply promoting Britta's water filtration
• 22:52
  products, the campaign goes behind the scenes of Millie's
• 22:55
  life, exploring how she feels being in the public eye and what
• 22:59
  she does to stay true to herself.
• 23:00
  Ultimately, the campaign positions hydration as a form of
• 23:03
  self-care for the actress and entrepreneur.
• 23:06
  Quote one thing I will never apologize for being myself, she
• 23:09
  says in an interview ahead of the campaign.
• 23:11
  I feel like shaving my hair off as a young child taught me a lot
• 23:14
  about not caring about what the world thinks of you and just
• 23:17
  trying to embrace who you are. I don't do things that don't
• 23:20
  feel organic and authentic to me.
• 23:21
  I like to involve myself in things that have purpose, that
• 23:24
  have meaning and that fit into my daily life.
• 23:26
  Britta is clearly responding to the current cultural landscape.
• 23:29
  One scroll through the chronically online content on
• 23:32
  Britta's TikTok is enough to show how on the pulse they are.
• 23:35
  And by anchoring the campaign in something beyond product
• 23:38
  replacement, it feels more aligned with the current online
• 23:40
  landscape, making it far harder for digital watchdog accounts
• 23:44
  and Genzed social media users to dismiss it entirely.
• 23:47
  Where mission driven messaging is one way to gain Genzed's
• 23:50
  respect, sometimes it's not about that at all.
• 23:52
  Sometimes it's as simple as an awareness play, because getting
• 23:56
  branded content to register with social media users is hard
• 23:59
  enough. Building brand recognition
• 24:01
  through humor is something we have already touched on in this
• 24:03
  episode, but it is worth exploring a little further.
• 24:06
  Because of the way Internet culture operates, it runs almost
• 24:09
  entirely on referential humor and deep cut references.
• 24:13
  We see this in some of the biggest trends on TikTok, which
• 24:15
  are often pretty weird or niche. Earlier this year, for example,
• 24:19
  one of the most talked about moments online was the 365
• 24:22
  buttons comment, where a TikTok user named Tamara commented on a
• 24:26
  video that she was going to get 365 buttons so she could track
• 24:29
  time passing throughout the year.
• 24:31
  It quickly blew up and became one of those references that
• 24:34
  only made sense if you were paying attention.
• 24:36
  From this, you can tell that Jen and Zed likes to be in on the
• 24:39
  joke. When a brand or celebrity
• 24:41
  ambassador can lean into that without being cringe, youth
• 24:44
  audiences respect it. That is why creating a specific
• 24:47
  aesthetic or world for a brand can be so important.
• 24:51
  A world in this context reflects the broader identity cultivated
• 24:54
  by a brand throughout the content they post, the people
• 24:57
  they platform, or just their general vibe.
• 24:59
  When done well, it can send cues in a subtle way, signaling to
• 25:03
  audiences who the brand is without having to say it
• 25:05
  outright. There are many ways to do this.
• 25:08
  Some brands do it through personality content on socials.
• 25:11
  We often see this with influencer LED brands like All
• 25:13
  for Mimi or Remi by Riley. Meanwhile, legacy brands like
• 25:17
  Apple have dabbled with different methods.
• 25:19
  Recently, Apple has been experimenting with brain wrought
• 25:21
  style content on TikTok following the launch of the
• 25:24
  MacBook Neo. The fact that it's TikTok
• 25:26
  specific shows how Apple is building a world and aesthetic
• 25:29
  to appeal to younger audiences. This aligns with Gen.
• 25:32
  Z's broader obsession with defining themselves through
• 25:35
  cores, and that extends to the brands they interact with with
• 25:38
  pay attention to, and purchase from.
• 25:40
  A celebrity. Ambassadorship, then, can be a
• 25:42
  powerful way to solidify a brand's world or expanded into
• 25:45
  new territory, and no recent example illustrates this better
• 25:49
  than Gap and Cat's Eye. Through the 1980s, Nineteen 90s
• 25:53
  and early 2000s, Gap was genuinely iconic.
• 25:56
  It was known for its denim, its basics, and its sleek campaigns.
• 26:00
  The Individuals of Style campaign is a perfect example.
• 26:03
  It was a series of black and white portraits featuring
• 26:06
  cultural icons such as Whoopi Gold, Stolberg and Joan Didion.
• 26:09
  Another iconic moment was the Cocky Swing campaign from 1998,
• 26:13
  which featured a group of young people dancing to swing music in
• 26:16
  their cockies. Throughout the 20 tens, things
• 26:18
  did shift for Gap. The brand seemed to lose its
• 26:21
  relevance and identity, trying to stay quote UN quote modern.
• 26:24
  Nothing illustrated this more clearly than the logo redesign
• 26:27
  in 2010, which sparked such significant backlash that Gap
• 26:31
  later reverted the logo. In recent years, though, the
• 26:34
  brand has returned to its roots, and the Cat's Eye veteran denim
• 26:37
  campaign is a sign of that. It featured Cat's Eye girls in
• 26:40
  full denim outfits, dancing to Milkshake by Kelis against a
• 26:44
  clean white background. It quickly went viral,
• 26:46
  accumulating 155.7 million views on TikTok and another 69,000,000
• 26:51
  on YouTube. Obviously, the success was
• 26:54
  partly because of its nostalgic element and the popularity of
• 26:56
  Cat's Eye, but it was also perfectly timed.
• 26:59
  The ad dropped a month after Sydney Sweeney's controversial
• 27:01
  American Eagle campaign. Where American Eagle leaned into
• 27:04
  a weird kind of white supremacist yet sexualized
• 27:08
  aesthetic, the Gap in Cat's Eye ad felt like the total opposite.
• 27:12
  As the Gap campaigns choreographer Robbie Blue put it
• 27:15
  quote, the story we're telling is the story of unity. 30
• 27:18
  dancers in different dance styles, plus one female pop
• 27:21
  group, Cat's Eye. It's really a celebration of
• 27:23
  everyone's differences. The success of the advertisement
• 27:26
  is evidenced by the numbers and by the fact that the Internet
• 27:30
  and the Cat's Eye fandom are almost nostalgic for the Gap
• 27:32
  era, with Mana no longer being in the group, so it seems, and
• 27:36
  generating that kind of response to Branded content amongst Gen.
• 27:39
  Z is no small feat. So is there still a place for
• 27:42
  the celebrity ambassador in the era of social media?
• 27:45
  As long as there are budgets to spend and products to promote?
• 27:48
  The answer seems to be yes. The celebrity industrial complex
• 27:51
  is not going away anytime soon, even with AI.
• 27:54
  But the function of celebrity ambassadorships probably has to
• 27:57
  change, and in many ways it already has.
• 27:59
  Brands and media do not hold the same cultural capital as they
• 28:02
  once did decades ago. Brands are no longer the sole
• 28:05
  entities setting trends. Increasingly, they are
• 28:08
  responding to trends as they emerge online, making this
• 28:11
  process participatory and community driven.
• 28:14
  Ultimately, this evolution from the classic top down approach
• 28:17
  weakens a brand's marketing power.
• 28:19
  That said, celebrity endorsements can still boost
• 28:22
  sales and build cultural momentum, but they primarily
• 28:25
  serve as a heuristic for consumers who are constantly
• 28:28
  bombarded with content. As we have established, this has
• 28:31
  become particularly important when targeting Gen.
• 28:34
  Z. The challenge of course is that
• 28:36
  just when brands have figured out the so-called rules of
• 28:39
  speaking to Gen. Z, Gen.
• 28:41
  Alpha is on their way and something tells us that things
• 28:44
  will change even more. Infinite Scroll is a podcast
• 28:47
  produced, presented and Co written by me, Lauren Meisner
• 28:50
  for Centennial World. This episode was researched and
• 28:53
  written by Annabelle and David. Thank you so much for listening.
• 28:55
  I love you guys and I will talk to you next week.
• 28:58
  Bye. Centennial World Podcast network
• 29:00
  operates on Gadigal land. We would like to acknowledge the
• 29:03
  Gadigal of the Aura Nation, the traditional custodians of this
• 29:06
  land, and pay our response to elders both past and present.