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Understanding Celebrity Endorsers in Cross-cultural Contexts: A

Content Analysis of South Korean and US Newspaper Advertising

Article  in  Asian Journal of Communication · July 2005

DOI: 10.1080/01292980500118292

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Asian Journal of Communication
Vol. 15, No. 2, July 2005, pp. 133 /153

Understanding Celebrity Endorsers in

Cross-cultural Contexts: A Content
Analysis of South Korean and US
Newspaper Advertising
Hye-Jin Paek

Based largely on McCracken’s ‘cultural meaning transfer’ model (1989), which stresses
the cultural meanings of celebrity endorsers, this study explores the characteristics that
differentiate celebrity-endorser strategies in South Korean newspaper ads from those in
US newspaper ads. With Hofstede’s cultural typology* uncertainty avoidance and power
/

distance* as a theoretical framework, this study finds that ads in South Korea with a
/

high uncertainty avoidance and a high power distance culture present a higher
proportion of celebrity endorsers than those in the US with a low uncertainty avoidance
and a low power distance culture. However, US ads have a greater proportion of product-
related celebrity endorsers in both high- and low-involvement product ads. The study
also provides detailed information on foreign celebrity endorsers presented in interna-
tional product ads.

Keywords: Celebrity-Endorser Advertising Strategy; International Advertising; Cultural

Meaning Transfer; Cultural Values

The use of celebrity endorsers is one of the most popular strategies of advertising in
the United States (Agrawal & Kamakura, 1995). According to industry sources,
approximately one quarter of all television commercials feature a celebrity (Erdogan,
Baker, & Tagg, 2001). US companies pay billions of dollars for endorsement deals and
licensing rights. Sport star Tiger Woods, one of the most successful advertising
endorsers, earns an estimated $60 million a year in endorsement fees from companies
such as Nike, Disney, American Express, General Mills, and Buick (Belch & Belch,

Correspondence to: Hye-Jin Paek, 5115 Vilas Hall, 821 University Ave., Madison, WI 53706, USA. Tel.: (608) 263
3388; Email: hjpaek@wisc.edu

ISSN 0129-2986 (print)/ISSN 1742-0911 (online) # 2005 AMIC/SCI-NTU

DOI: 10.1080/01292980500118292
134 H.-J. Paek

2004). In the top 20 most effective and remembered TV commercials in the US as

reported by Advertising Age (2002), 10 were celebrity-endorsed ads.
Owing to the prominence of celebrity endorsers in advertising, numerous studies
have examined celebrity-endorser effectiveness and consumer responses (e.g. Frieden,
1984; Goldsmith, Lafferty, & Newell, 2000; Kahle & Homer, 1985; Kamins, 1989,
1990; Stafford, Stafford, & Day, 2002). But little is known about the roles of celebrity
endorsers in international advertising contexts. McCracken (1989) explains that the
success of celebrity-endorsed ads depends on whether the celebrity endorser is
meaningful within a culture’s consumer values and norms. Interpreting celebrity
endorsers as cultural value representatives, this study aims at examining the cross-
cultural differences of celebrity endorsers presented in print ads.
As companies have expanded their markets beyond their countries’ respective
borders and have expressed an increasing interest in global marketing strategies,
debates over four decades old have surfaced among international marketers,
advertising agencies, and academicians regarding the applicability of globalized or
localized international advertising (see Agrawal, 1995; Onkvisit & Shaw, 1999, for
detailed reviews). These debates reveal disagreement over whether consumer needs
become homogeneous (e.g. Kanso, 1992; Levitt, 1983), or whether consumers’
reactions differ across cultures according to their indigenous cultural norms and
values (e.g. Lin, 2001; Mueller, 1987, 1992; Zandpour, Campos, Catalano, & Chang,
1994). International advertising researchers have stressed the importance of cultural
factors in the development of strategic decisions about globalization or localization,
as well as assessed the values reflected in the ads (Lin, 1993, 2001; Mueller, 1987, 1992,
2004). But practitioners themselves lean toward globalization because of greater
cost effectiveness, simplified strategic planning, and consistency of brand image
(see Agrawal, 1995).
Detailed discussions on specific advertising strategies such as celebrity endorse-
ments are lacking in the academic domain. In real world situations, though,
international advertisers and brand managers increasingly consider the global utility
of their celebrity endorsers (Howard, 2003). For instance, the NBA player Yao Ming is
contracted to endorse the sports drink Gatorade, which the advertiser attempts to
push globally. Since celebrities endorsing certain global brands assist the build-up of a
consistent brand image worldwide, it is worthwhile to understand the utility of
celebrity endorsers in cross-cultural contexts. In so doing, this paper explores how
two countries with distinct cultures use celebrity-endorser strategies in their print
advertisements. More specifically, this paper examines differences of celebrity
endorsement strategies in advertising between two cultures in the following two
regards: (1) the frequency with which celebrity endorsers are used in advertisements;
and (2) the conditions under which celebrity endorsement strategies differ
(e.g. product nationality, product involvement, and types of celebrity endorsers).
This study compares US and South Korean newspaper ads. This study compares
US and South Korean newspaper ads. South Korea (hereafter, Korea) was the US’s
ninth largest import and export market in 1998 (Moon & Franke, 2000). It was the
 Asian Journal of Communication 135

world’s 10th largest advertising market in 1999 (Ad Age International, 1999), then the
world’s eighth with a total of USD 6.8 billion in 2003 ad spending (Advertising Age,
2004). According to Advertising Age (2003), the Korean automobile company Kia
Motors Corporation was ranked as one of the 100 leading national advertisers. In
addition, multinational agencies mostly headquartered in the US currently control
more than 50% of the Korean advertising market (US Commercial Service, 2005).
Because of the close ties and economic importance between the two countries, a
number of related cross-cultural studies have been conducted, including examina-
tions of the cultural values reflected in ads (Cho, Kwon, Gentry, Jun, & Kropp, 1999;
Han & Shavitt, 1994; Tak, Kaid, & Lee, 1997), of advertising execution styles and
appeals (Miracle, Chang, & Taylor, 1992), of consumer attitudes (Yoon, Muehling, &
Cho, 1996), and of work ethics (Moon & Franke, 2000). Examining celebrity
endorsers in ad content, this study adds to the knowledge of these two national
cultures’ advertising strategies and cultural values by joining Hofstede’s (1991)
cultural framework (uncertainty avoidance, power distance) with McCracken’s (1989)
‘cultural meaning transfer’ model. Uncertainty avoidance and power distance have
not been drawing as much attention from cross-cultural study scholars as Hofstede’s
other two dimensions* i.e. individualism/collectivism and masculinity/femininity.
/

But they seem more relevant to understanding the meanings conveyed by celebrity
endorsers, which are echoed in McCracken’s ‘cultural meaning transfer’ model. With
these emphases in mind, this study will provide practitioners with greater insight into
a specific type of global marketing strategy.

Celebrity Endorsers in US and Korean Ads

A celebrity is ‘known for being well-known’ (Boorstin, 1961: 57) and is defined as a
person (actor, sports figure, entertainer, politician, etc.) who is known to the public for
his or her achievements (Blackwell, Miniard, & Engel, 2001). Although celebrities’
achievements are often in areas unrelated to the product class being promoted (e.g.
Britney Spears for Pepsi Cola, Tiger Woods for Buick cars, Kobe Bryant for McDonald’s),
Frieden (1984) defines celebrities as well-known individuals who are directly or
indirectly associated with their endorsed product category (e.g. Michael Jordan for Nike
athletic shoes, Tiger Woods for Nike golf equipment). In their endorsed advertising,
celebrities have promoted products in a variety of ways: first-hand testimonials;
recommendations touting a product’s benefits; the assignation of a celebrity’s name to a
product (e.g. Jordan cologne, Nike Air Jordan); appearances as an actor in an advertise-
ment; and contractual employment as a spokesperson for a brand or a company.
Advertisers often prefer celebrity endorsement strategies because they believe
that celebrity endorsers have enormous stopping power, and that this stopping
power can draw more attention from target audiences and cut through cluttered
media environments (Belch & Belch, 2004). A body of literature in the celebrity
endorsement advertising area explains that the effects of celebrity endorsers derive
136 H.-J. Paek

from characteristics such as expertise, trustworthiness, attractiveness, and power

(e.g. Goldsmith et al., 2000; Kelman, 1961; McGuire, 1985; Ohanian, 1991).
Just as US advertisers enormously welcome using celebrity endorsers in their ads,
Korean advertisers rely on celebrity endorsements even more heavily. Of the TV
commercials screened, about 32% of the ads included celebrity endorsers, and 59% of
primetime TV commercials used celebrities as endorsers (Son, 2001). An empirical
study shows that Koreans prefer celebrity-endorsed ads regardless of the product
types endorsed (Yoon & Chae, 2004). The popularity of endorsers derives from
advertisers’ belief that using them is the most effective way to differentiate their
products from those of their competitors (Lee, Paek, & B. Kim, 2004).
After the Korean advertising market opened to foreign countries in 1988 and the
use of Western endorsers was deregulated, using Western celebrities became an
increasing trend. For instance, Brook Shields pushed Aloe drinks, and Kenny G
represented Inkel audio. Shannon Doherty from the popular TV show Beverly Hills
90210 appeared on LG cosmetics ads, while Kim Basinger pitched Vitamin Shampoo.
Cindy Crawford played a role as an endorser in LG fashion; sexy star Sharon Stone
from the thriller movie Basic Instinct made the Hanhwa energy ad hot; Claudia
Schiffer endorsed GV jeans; and Naomi Campbell pushed Mercoledi fashion clothing.
Western scholars, politicians, and news reporters also played endorser roles. One of
the successful campaigns that used Western celebrities was Daewoo car advertising,
featuring Carl Bernstein, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Watergate
and Nixon. Likewise, the futurist Alvin Toffler endorsed Hyundai corporate
advertising, and the British ex-prime minister Margaret Thatcher appeared in
Samsung corporate image advertising (Lee, 2001).
But using various Western celebrities did not always result in success. It is
noteworthy that most campaigns using Western celebrities known for their sexuality
and physical attractiveness were disappointingly ineffective, while ads using credible
and powerful Western celebrities were successful (Lee, 2001). One exceptional
example of a global brand using Western celebrities is Vidal Sassoon Shampoo (Kim,
2001). Kim (2001) explains that the Vidal Sassoon Shampoo campaign became
successful by adopting a globalization (or standardization) strategy in which Vidal
Sassoon himself was an endorser. But one should keep in mind that Vidal Sassoon’s
early campaign centered on a localization strategy in which Korean celebrity
endorsers showed off their glamorous hair. The standardization strategy of using
the same celebrity endorser marked one rare case of a successful global advertising
campaign. Nevertheless, Lee (2001) cautioned that global brand managers and
advertisers should be careful when using Western celebrities, and that the differences
between cultural tastes, norms, and values should be taken into account.

Cultural Differences between the United States and Korea

Culture is defined as ‘the interactive aggregate of common characteristics that
influence a human group’s response to its environment’ (Hofstede, 1980: 19) and as
 Asian Journal of Communication 137

the behavioral norms, attitudinal tendencies, and beliefs shared among people from
the same group.
An understanding of cultural differences is often considered a prerequisite for
successful international advertising (de Mooij, 1998). The reason is that consumers
grow up in a particular culture and become accustomed to that culture’s value
systems, beliefs, and perception processes. Consequently, consumers respond to
advertising messages that are congruent with their culture, thereby rewarding
advertisers who understand that culture and who tailor ads to reflect its values
(Zhang & Gelb, 1996).
In a cultural context, the celebrity endorser is a cultural hero (Hofstede, 1991).
Cultural heroes are ‘persons, alive or dead, real or imaginary, who possess
characteristics that are highly prized in a society, and thus serve as role models for
behavior’ (de Mooij, 1998: 45).
In a similar context, McCracken (1989) argues that celebrities are those who ‘draw
these powerful meanings from the roles they assume in their television, movie,
military, athletic, and other careers and each new dramatic role brings the celebrity
into contact with a range of objects, persons, and contexts’ (p. 315). In his ‘cultural
meaning transfer’ model, celebrity endorsers should possess shared cultural mean-
ings, imbue products with cultural meanings, and deliver such meanings to the
consumers throughout the subsequent processes. Britney Spears, for instance,
transferred her distinctive cultural images based on her records, live performances,
and video appearances to Pepsi Cola ads that successfully promoted the product
concept of ‘a new generation’ to the young target audiences (Peter & Olson, 1993).
Consistent with this concept of meaning transfer, Cohen (1992) found that
advertisements with Asian spokespersons produce more favorable attitudes toward
high technology engineering products than do ads with white spokespersons, while
the reverse was observed for products associated with status. Gwinner and Eaton
(1999) have adopted the ‘cultural meaning transfer’ model to hypothesize that a
sporting event’s image would be transferred to a brand through event sponsorship
activity. Hirschman and Thompson (1997) agree that the relative success of a
celebrity-endorsed ad depends on how well its image as a cultural icon fits its
promotional purposes and consumer tastes.
Considered in its wider applications, ‘cultural meaning transfer’ has important
implications for companies using celebrity endorsers. Marketers should first decide
on the image or symbolic meaning important to their target audience for a particular
product, service, or company. Next, they should determine which celebrity best
represents the meaning or image to be projected. Thus, it is legitimate to think that
the weights of cultural meanings that celebrity endorsers confer may vary across
cultures.
Built upon McCracken’s model that the cultural meanings associated with celebrity
endorsers should match the cultural meanings prevalent in the context of targeted
consumers, this study adopts Hofstede’s typology of culture (1980, 1983, 1991) as a
framework by which to test cross-cultural differences and, consequently, to better
138 H.-J. Paek

understand the cultural meanings of celebrity endorsers. His cultural typology

consists of four dimensions according to which societies differ and through which the
cultural value system of the majority of the middle class in a work place finds
representation. These dimensions are individualism/collectivism, power distance,
uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity/femininity. This study focuses on the two
cultural dimensions of power distance and uncertainty avoidance because these
cultural dimensions in the United States and Korea are distinct and more directly
related to the roles and meanings of celebrity endorsers in advertising. Accordingly,
the two dimensions could contribute greatly to an informative discussion concerning
different cultural meanings of celebrity endorsers and subsequent consumer behavior.

Uncertainty Avoidance
The uncertainty avoidance dimension involves ‘the extent to which the members of a
culture feel threatened by uncertain or unknown situations’ (Hofstede, 1991: 113).
Individuals in countries low in uncertainty avoidance, such as the United States, are
relatively comfortable with ambiguity and are tolerant of others’ behaviors and
opinions. Where uncertainty avoidance is high, such as in Japan and Korea,
consumers rely more on formal rules (Gudykunst et al., 1996), absolute truth
(Hofstede, 1983), and the advice of those whom they consider to be experts
(Hofstede, 1980), because (in these two cases) the Confucian influence emphasizes
the need to save face and avoid shame (Zhang & Gelb, 1996). This dimension has
been adopted in cross-cultural advertising studies that investigate the following:
(a) the ethical perceptions of advertising practitioners in the United States and Korea
(Moon & Franke, 2000); (b) the recall of, and attitude toward, comparative
advertising (Donthu, 1998); and (c) differences in the form and content of political
advertising messages (Tak et al., 1997). For instance, Donthu argued that low
uncertainty avoidance cultures (e.g. North American countries such as the United
States and Canada) may be very receptive to comparative advertising, whereas high
uncertainty avoidance cultures (e.g. many Asian countries such as India) may not
be comfortable with such advertising. This discomfort stems from comparative
advertisements’ unfamiliar approach to advertising, an approach that is therefore
considered ambiguous and risky. For example, focusing on uncertainty avoidance
cultural characteristics dealing with the tolerance for ambiguity and deviant ideas,
Tak et al. (1997) found that Korean candidates in political ads focused significantly
more on issues rather than images. In addition, Zandpour and his colleagues (1994)
content analyzed TV commercials collected from different cultures (the United States,
Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Taiwan, and Korea). They
found that cultures with high uncertainty avoidance depended more frequently on a
trustworthy source to provide them with logical reasoning and visual information.
The implication of this finding for celebrity endorsement advertising is that
uncertainty reduction requires credible, trustworthy, and knowledgeable endorsers
in high uncertainty avoidance cultures. Especially for a high-involvement product
 Asian Journal of Communication 139

that is newly introduced and very expensive (and thus a risk-taking purchase), people
in a high uncertainty avoidance culture may rely on experts or credible celebrities
more than would people in a low uncertainty avoidance culture.

Power Distance
Power distance in Hofstede’s typology involves the extent to which people accept
unequal distributions of power in society and organizations (Hofstede, 1980, 1991),
or to which people see authority as a basic fact of the society (Gudykunst et al., 1996).
Hofstede (1980) argued that the cultural dimension of power distance explains
how different societies have addressed basic human inequalities in social status
and prestige, wealth, and sources of power. High power distance countries, such
as Korea, are more tolerant of hierarchies and autocratic leadership and more likely
to expect clear directions. In contrast, low power distance countries, such as
the United States, are more likely to seek factual evidence and reasoning in relation
to a particular course of action (Hofstede, 1991). Compared to consumers in
cultures that have little tolerance for authority, consumers in a high power distance
culture tend to obey the recommendations of public and authority figures such as
celebrities and high-status figures (Zandpour et al., 1994). People with power
are considered to be right and expected to be reference groups (Albers-Miller &
Gelb, 1996).
For the application of celebrity endorsement ads, celebrity endorsers* who wield
/

their salience and fame to guide consumers* might be more prevalent in a high
/

power distance culture. A low power distance culture, by contrast, would have less
tolerance for authority and would focus more on self-interest, autonomy, and
independence (Hofstede, 1980). This relative prominence may result from the fact
that celebrities in a high power distance culture transfer their publicly salient and
powerful images to consumers and deliver these images via product ads. Therefore,
the following research questions and hypotheses are addressed.
H1: Korean ads will have a greater portion of celebrity endorsers than US ads.
H2: Korean ads will have a greater portion of expert (product-relevant) celebrity
endorsers than US ads.

Product Involvement Interacting with Cultural Characteristics

While advertising in a society operates within cultural values and norms, cultural
values are not the only ones that influence and differentiate advertising strategies
across cultures. In celebrity endorsement advertising strategies in particular, studies
have tested and found different uses of celebrity endorsers contingent upon levels of
product involvement (e.g. Petty & Cacioppo, 1986; Petty, Cacioppo, & Schumann,
1983). Persuasion literature (e.g. literature based on the Elaboration Likelihood
Model or the Heuristic Systematic Model) often explains that product endorsers (i.e.
140 H.-J. Paek

experts or celebrities) exert greater impact under low-involvement conditions

(Petty, Cacioppo, & Schumann, 1983). Product involvement here refers to the
degree to which a consumer is related to a certain product, which is to say, the
pertinence of an ad’s appeal to the consumer (Bowen & Chaffee, 1974). In this
content-based analytic study, a degree of product involvement is determined
according to four criteria: how expensive a product is (i.e. price); how frequently
the product is purchased (i.e. frequency of purchase); how long it lasts (i.e.
durability); and what the consequences are of a product choice (i.e. consequences of
choice). Product involvement has been one of the most important and widely
employed concepts in advertising research, particularly when psychological proces-
sing of advertising is examined (e.g. Petty & Cacioppo, 1986; Petty et al., 1983; Petty
& Priester, 1994).
Since the studies dealt chiefly with US advertising, one can justifiably assert that
the association between product involvement and the adoption of celebrity endorsers
may vary across cultures. This argument echoes the findings by Yoon and Chae
(2004) that Korean consumers preferred celebrity-endorsed product ads regardless of
product type and involvement. Accordingly, the following research question is
addressed:
RQ1: With low and high product-involvement considered, how different from each
other are the two cultures’ presentations of celebrity endorsers in ads?

In addition, considering the growing volume of international product ads that, in

the context of globalization, characterizes Korean media, practitioners would find it
valuable to know how frequently international product ads appear in Korean print
media and how frequently the ads adopt domestic versus non-domestic celebrity
endorsers. For conceptual definitions of domestic and international products,
Samli (1995) defined ‘domestic’ as products developed to satisfy very local and
specific needs, and ‘international’ as products designed to satisfy common
needs around the world. For instance, in the same computer product category, a
brand such as Hyunju (a Korean brand) is a domestic product, whereas IBM
computers would be international/global products. Thus, the following research
question is addressed:
RQ2: Among international product ads in Korea, how frequently are domestic and
non-domestic celebrity endorsers presented?

Method
Content analysis was used to examine celebrity endorsers shown in US and Korean
newspaper advertising. Newspaper advertisements were chosen because, in contrast
to other types of media, they are comparable and generalizable for all target
segments.1 In addition, newspapers are rarely used much in cross-cultural advertising
studies.
 Asian Journal of Communication 141

Sampling
Advertisements in Chosun-ilbo (Korea) and The New York Times (the United States)
throughout 2000 were selected using constructed week sampling. Both of these
newspapers are relatively well matched (Tak et al., 1997) in that each is arguably the
most salient and influential newspaper in its respective country and has nationwide
readership. Sunday-issued newspapers, duplicate ads, local ads, classifieds, and movie
ads were excluded so that a lack of matching and a sampling bias could be avoided.
The unit of analysis is a considerable-sized ad,2 and there were a total of 1,318 such
ads (694 for Chosun-ilbo; 624 for The New York Times).

Coding Procedure
Two bilingual graduate students coded the ads. Considering the potential for gender
differences and cultural biases (Miracle, 2001), one female bilingual Korean American
who had lived in the United States for more than 15 years coded the entire data set.
The other coder was a male Korean graduate student with sufficient knowledge of
American culture. He coded 170 randomly selected sample ads* more than 10%
/

(Wimmer & Dominick, 1994)* to calculate intercoder reliability. The coders worked
/

independently and were blind to the hypotheses. Before coding, six training sessions
were conducted, such that the coders practiced coding and contributed to the coding
manuals.
The coders were instructed to enter a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to indicate the presence or
absence in each ad of human models and then of celebrities. Human models should
show more than the upper torso, so that it can be determined whether the models are
Eastern or Western and male or female, as well as celebrities or non-celebrities.
Celebrity endorsers were operationalized as ‘publicly well-known individuals’, such as
TV stars, movie actors/actresses, sports figures, musicians, scholars, politicians, and
so on (Blackwell et al., 2001). Out of these celebrity endorsers, expert celebrities were
operationalized as ‘product-relevant celebrities’, such as sports players endorsing
sports product ads (e.g. Tiger Woods in golf equipment ads, Kobe Bryant in a
basketball shoe ad). Non-expert celebrities indicate ‘product-not-relevant celebrities’
(e.g. TV stars in an automobile ad, musicians in food ads). These different types of
celebrities were again categorized and coded as three different age groups: 0 to 25
years old, 26 to 50 years old, and 51 and higher years old. The number of celebrities
presented in ads was measured by adding up all of the age categories.
While there is little agreement on which intercoder reliability is the best (see
Lombard, Snyder-Duch, & Bracken, 2002), this study adopts both Perreault and
Leigh’s Index (P/L Index) (Perreault & Leigh, 1989; only for nominal variables) and
Krippendorff ’s alpha (for both nominal and ordinal variables). Both of the reliability
formulas are known to be relatively rigorous, accounting for chance agreements (for
detailed reviews of intercoder reliability, see Krippendorff, 2004; Rust & Cooil, 1994).
All the reliability coefficients, which exceeded the rule-of-thumb coefficient size
142 H.-J. Paek

(Nunnally, 1978; Rust & Cooil, 1994; Wimmer & Dominick, 1994), ranged from 0.87
to 0.99 (see Appendix A).

Measure
The product involvement scale was constructed with four item variables, borrowing
from the study of Bowen and Chaffee (1974): product price,3 period of use of
product, frequency of product purchase, and consequences of product choice (see
Appendix A for more detailed operationalization). The four items were summed to
construct the product involvement scale. The scale’s value, ranging from 0 to 7, was
dichotomized into two: low and high product-involvement. Cronbach’s alpha
reliability of the scale was 0.91, which indicates very high internal reliability. An
exploratory factor analysis using Principle Component Analysis (PCA) showed that
the scale forms one factor with an eigenvalue of 3.12 and 78.02% of the total variance
explained.

Results
For the comparison of the frequency of celebrity endorsers in Korean ads and US ads,
a series of chi-square statistics were performed.
Out of the total ads, ads endorsed by human models were 326 for Chosun-ilbo and
199 for The New York Times. The number of human models in Korean ads (47% out
of the total ads) was significantly higher than number found in US ads (31.9%,
x2(1)31.19, p B0.001).
/ /

The first hypothesis, positing that ads in a high power distance and high
uncertainty avoidance culture (Korea) would have a greater number of celebrity
endorsers than those in a low power distance and low uncertainty avoidance culture
(the United States), was supported. As shown in Table 1 below, Korean ads had a
greater number of celebrities (24.1%, n 167)* whether the celebrities were
/ /

product-related or not* than the US ads (9.9%, n 62, x2(1)45.68, p B0.001).

/ / / /

However, the second hypothesis, positing that Korean ads would have a greater
number of expert (product-relevant) celebrity endorsers than the US ads, was not
supported. Rather, the result was in the opposite direction, in that the US ads
employed a greater number of product-relevant celebrity endorsers (77.4%, n48) /

than Korean ads (38.3%, n64, x2(1)27.66, p B0.001).

/ / /

The first research question relates celebrity endorsers in different cultural contexts
with product involvement. Ads for high-involvement products in the Korean
newspaper accounted for 69.8% of the total ads (n 395), while 67% of the total
/

ads in the US newspaper were for high-involvement products. The difference of the
frequency between the two country ads was not statistically significant (x2(1)0.92, /

p ns).
/

While the two hypotheses predict the general frequency of celebrity endorsers
presented in the two cultures’ ads, the two research questions address more specific
 Asian Journal of Communication 143

conditions under which celebrity endorsers are presented. The first research question
asked how product involvement works with different cultural characteristics.
Among high-involvement products, first of all, Korean ads included significantly
more celebrity endorsers (21.5%, n85) than the US counterparts (9.1%,
/

n29, x2(1)20.32, p B0.001). But in terms of different types of celebrities

/ / /

(i.e. product-relevant or product-not-relevant celebrities), the US ads employed

significantly more product-relevant celebrity endorsers than the Korean ads.
Specifically, 55.2% of the celebrity-endorsed, high-involvement product ads in the
US newspaper (n16) employed product-relevant celebrities, while the Korean
/

counterparts comprised 29.4% (n25, x2(1)6.23, p B0.05). This relatively high

/ / /

proportion of product-relevant celebrities in the US ads is also seen in low-

involvement product ads. Among low-involvement products, Korean ads had a
significantly higher number of celebrity endorsers than the US ads, but within
celebrity-endorsed ads, the US ads carried more product-relevant celebrity spokes-
persons than the Korean ads. Of the total celebrity endorsers presented in the US
newspaper’s low-involvement product ads, 96.1% were product-relevant celebrities,
while about half of the Korean counterparts were product-relevant celebrities
(see Table 1).
The second research question asked about the relationship between international
product ads and the nationality of celebrity endorsers within Korean ads. From a total
of 694 ads, only 8.1% were international product ads (n56). /

From a total of 56 international product ads in the Korean newspaper, as shown

in Table 2 below, only four had celebrity endorsers (7.1%), while 163 domestic
product ads had celebrity endorsers (25.5%, x2(1)9.54, p B0.01). From the
/ /

four ads, foreign celebrity endorsers were present in three, while domestic
endorsers were present in only one international product ad. It is noteworthy that
about 12 foreign celebrities (7.7%) endorsed domestic product ads in the Korean
newspaper.
Table 1 Chi-square Test of Celebrity Endorsers in Korean and US Ads

Frequencies % (n )

Variables Korea US x2

Endorsers 47.0 (326) 31.9 (199) 31.19***

Celebrity endorsers 24.1 (167) 9.9 (62) 45.68***
Product-relevant celebrities 38.3 (64) 77.4 (48) 27.66***
In high-involvement product ads
Celebrity endorsers 21.5 (85) 9.1 (29) 20.32***
Product-relevant celebrities 29.4 (25) 55.2 (16) 6.23*
In low-involvement product ads
Celebrity endorsers 32.7 (56) 15.9 (25) 12.46***
Product-relevant celebrities 50.0 (28) 96.1 (24) 15.91***

Note : Degrees of freedom/1; *p B/0.05, **p B/0.01, ***p B/0.001.

144 H.-J. Paek

Table 2 Relationship between Product Nationality and Celebrity Endorsers in Korean

Ads

Frequencies % (n )

Variables Domestic International x2

Endorsers 47.6 (304) 39.3 (22) 1.45

Celebrity endorsers 25.5 (163) 7.1 (4) 9.54**
Among celebrity endorsers
Domestic endorsers 92.3 (56) 25.0 (1) 20.65***
Foreign endorsers 7.7 (12) 75.0 (3)

Note : Degrees of freedom/1; *p B/0.05, **p B/0.01, ***p B/0.001.

Discussion
This is the first attempt to explore how celebrity endorsers are used differently in
cross-cultural contexts. A number of cross-cultural advertising studies have explored
the differences of advertising contents in terms of either cultural values (e.g. Cho
et al., 1999; Lin, 2001; Mueller, 1987, 1992) or message strategies (Lin, 1993;
Zandpour et al., 1994). But to the researcher’s knowledge, no study has looked at
celebrity-endorser strategies in global advertising contexts. Expanding the scope
of McCracken’s ‘cultural meaning transfer’ model (1989), this study investigates
the characteristics that* depending upon product involvement and product
/

nationality* differentiate celebrity-endorser strategies in Korean ads from those in

/

US ads.
The results show that Hofstede’s cultural value framework facilitates a better
understanding of the different adoption patterns underlying celebrity-endorser
strategies in the two countries. Ads in a high uncertainty avoidance and high power
distance culture like Korea employed more celebrity endorsers than ads in a low
uncertainty avoidance and low power distance culture such as the US. Such findings
may imply that celebrity endorsers can play a more significant role in Korean society
than in the US in guiding consumers in less risky and more certain ways. One caution
concerns specific types of celebrity endorsers. Expert celebrities, operationalized as
‘product-relevant’ celebrities in this study, were hypothesized to be more prevalent in
Korea than in the US, because such source expertise (or product relevance) may
contribute to a reduction in the risk of unknown product attributes. Interestingly, the
findings pointed in the opposite direction. The US ads presented expert celebrities
more frequently than the Korean ads. One explanation would be that Korean
consumers are likely to consider celebrity endorsers, whether they are related to the
product or not, to be experts and reference groups. This argument is consistent with
the study of Yoon and Chae (2004), which finds that Korean consumers’ preference
for celebrity endorsers prevailed over relevance of product types and involvement.
Another possibility may concern different preferences for celebrity endorsers. In the
US, sports players are the most popular and effective endorsers, as indicated by the
 Asian Journal of Communication 145

success of Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Kobe Bryant (Belch & Belch, 2004). In
contrast, product endorsements by sports players have been disastrous until only
recently when, during the 2002 World Cup, nice-looking and well-built soccer stars
successfully debuted in TV and print advertising. Such different preferences come
partly from different socio-cultural factors, because Korea has Confucianism deeply
rooted in its culture, which respects high education and scorns sports expertise (Kim,
1977). By contrast, about 40% (n 19) of the US ads that presented expert celebrities
/

featured sports players as endorsers for various kinds of publications.

A study on the characteristics of Korean consumers gives additional insights (Cheil
Communication Monthly, 2000). The study reports that Korean consumers are high-
trend pursuers, and that cultural trends come mostly from TV stars and famous
singers currently in vogue. Thus, the success of celebrity-endorser strategies depends
partly on those celebrities who at a given time are most popular, and partly on the
advertisers who use the most recent and the hottest cultural idols. The frequent use of
the freshest and hottest celebrity endorsers may explain the findings of Paek, Nelson,
and McLeod (2002), in which Korean ads were more likely to use young models than
old models. This result contradicts the previous study (Cho et al., 1999), which found
that Korean ads present old models more frequently than US ads. But there are plenty
of exceptions to this finding in US ads (for example, an older Hollywood star like
Jamie Lee Curtis endorsing Sprint PCS).4
In sum, the degree of salience attached to celebrity endorsers may baffle source
experts to the extent that celebrities perform (or are at least perceived to be
performing) well enough to relieve consumers’ uneasiness over product attributes. In
other words, for the transfer of celebrity endorsers’ cultural meaning to Korean
consumers via product ads, celebrity endorsers may not need to have specific
knowledge pertinent to the endorsed product or brand name. Instead, they may only
need to inspire* in a particular societal context* the most salient cultural
/ /

iconolatry and symbolic influence possible.

Just as Hofstede’s cultural framework of uncertainty avoidance and power distance
generates only a partial explanation of celebrity endorsers, so does product
involvement. In its use of the dual-processing persuasion model, related literature
predicts that, in order to give consumers peripheral cues for recalling and buying
products, low-involvement product ads would likely employ more celebrity endorsers
and, specifically, experts (e.g. Petty et al., 1983). Regarding this prediction, however,
this paper’s findings are somewhat mixed. The US ads followed the persuasion model
prediction, in that, among low-involvement and celebrity-endorsed product ads, the
proportion of product-relevant celebrities overwhelmed product-not-relevant celeb-
rities (96.1% vs. 3.9%). But the Korean ads did not follow this tendency. Instead, they
had similar proportions of product-relevant and product-not-relevant celebrity
endorsers. Similarly, among high-involvement product ads, the results were mixed.
Slightly more than half of the US ads featured product-relevant celebrities, while less
than 30% out of the total celebrity endorsers in the Korean ads were product-relevant
celebrities. At least one insight drawn from this finding supports the position that the
146 H.-J. Paek

association between product involvement and celebrity endorsers can vary across
different cultural contexts.
On the other hand, high-involvement product ads were, in each country’s
newspaper, more prevalent than low-involvement product ads. This finding is not
surprising because of the unique characteristics of the newspaper medium. News-
papers place relatively few temporal and spatial limits on advertising, and they
require consumers to be more actively involved in the search for each ad. Accordingly,
in newspapers advertisers may want to advertise only high-involvement products that
are expensive and infrequently purchased (Rothschild, 1987).
Finally, in terms of global advertising strategies, the results show that only four
international product ads employed celebrity endorsers, but that three of those four
ads had foreign celebrity endorsers. Interestingly, all three cases were from
international female fashion magazine ads. By displaying their cover models
(Cameron Diaz in Cosmopolitan, Cindy Crawford in Elle, and Elizabeth Hurley in
Marie Claire), these magazines promoted their endorsed products. As globalization
continues to spread swiftly and deeply, Western models with blonde hair, blue eyes,
and long slim legs have become a standard of beauty throughout the world (Frith,
Cheng, & Shaw, 2004). As the visibility of these and similar global magazine titles
expands, well-known Western fashion models and celebrities become salient by
tapping into the cultural meaning of the ‘global beauty standard’. Other beauty-
related product ads that cover cosmetics, clothes, and fashion accessories can easily
adopt* and commonly do adopt* the global celebrity-endorser strategy. Such an
/ /

argument is supported by de Mooij (1998), who claims that standardization in

advertising strategy can be more readily applied to such product ads as cosmetics,
toiletries, clothing, and footwear.
It should be noted that some domestic product ads employ foreign celebrities. One
significant example centers on Bill Gates, whom Koreans call ‘the computer software
emperor’. Endorsing the Sambo Dream notebook computer, he appeared not in
person but on the jacket photograph of his book, Speed of Thought. Apparently the
book publisher and the computer company were trying to create a synergistic effect
by promoting both products at once. The fact that intelligent and knowledgeable
celebrities may be effective endorsers can be explained within the theoretical
framework adopted in this study regarding the two cultural dimensions. As discussed
earlier, in a high uncertainty avoidance and high power distance culture, consumers
rely more on credible, authoritative, trustworthy, and knowledgeable endorsers
(Albers-Miller & Gelb, 1996; Zandpour et al., 1994). Especially in the case of foreign
celebrity endorsers, it makes sense that well-known intellectuals and politicians have
been effective. Unlike Korean movie and TV stars, who can transfer their meanings
more directly and closely to products and subsequently to consumers, foreign
celebrities do not share other cultural meanings with Korean consumers. However,
foreign intellectuals and politicians who possess power, authority and credibility
could still be more influential to Korean consumers than the merely attractive
and salient images that foreign movie and TV stars would have. Thus, foreign
 Asian Journal of Communication 147

intellectuals and politicians would more likely be preferred and used by Korean
advertisers in their ads.
In addition, the preference for intellectuals as product endorsers reflects the unique
cultural norms prevalent in Korean society (see Paek et al., 2002, for a detailed
discussion). Paek argues that, although Korean society is known as a collectivistic
culture, it nevertheless demonstrates vertical and individualistic characteristics such
as competition and achievement. It is already commonly known that the aspiration
for higher education is widespread and deeply ingrained in Korean society. Such
education-oriented cultural values and norms can be detected in Korean ads. About
17% of the total ads in Korean newspapers in 2000 were for education-related
products, mostly textbooks that promised to enhance English or other foreign
language skills (e.g. TOEFL, TOEIC, TESOL), as well as self-study guidebooks for
college entrance exams. It is not surprising to see Bill Gates in Korean ads, because his
image of intelligence may meet Korean consumers’ cultural norms and expectations.
Furthermore, several Korean celebrities with a similar intellectual image endorse
Korean products. For instance, Cheol Soo Ahn, who invented an anti-virus computer
software program, is a famous cultural icon for his intelligence and brilliance. He has
been endorsing several ads pertinent to computers, computer program software, and
education-related products.
Although they are rarely generalizable, this study’s findings imply that it is possible
to adopt a consistent and homogeneous celebrity-endorser strategy, especially if the
models are related to cosmetics or fashions and if they are highly credible. As
discussed earlier, the success in Korea of such non-Korean celebrity endorsers as Carl
Bernstein, Alvin Toffler, and Margaret Thatcher may constitute a salient variable in
efforts to predict whether, and to what degree, celebrities who are powerful, credible,
and intelligent may work well if coordinated with an appropriate type of product.
Notably, the relevance of foreign models to product types and model characteristics
differs from that of domestic celebrities.
This study should be evaluated more as a theoretical exploration than an empirical
achievement, because many curious questions remain unanswered. Two limitations in
particular should inspire future studies to posit rigorously inferred and functionally
provocative answers.
First, the sampling of newspaper ads might be a considerable limitation. Much
literature is devoted to how influential and prevalent celebrity endorsers appear in TV
commercials; however, few studies deal with the role of celebrity endorsers in print
ads appearing in newspapers and magazines. This study’s analysis of Korean and US
newspaper ads might partly compensate for the dearth of literature on celebrity-
endorser advertising in print media. At the same time, though, this study lacks an
analysis of the mainstream role of TV in celebrity-endorser advertisements. Future
studies should examine TV commercials and compare not only cross-cultural
differences but also cross-media differences.5
Second, to describe differences in celebrity-endorser advertising strategies, this
study adopts only two cultural dimensions from Hofstede’s four-dimensional cultural
148 H.-J. Paek

value typologies. The dimensions of uncertainty avoidance and power distance more
directly deal with issues regarding the roles and meanings of celebrity endorsers.
However, other cultural dimensions such as individualism/collectivism may facilitate
efforts to explain cross-cultural differences further. In addition, content analytic
studies often assume that different cultural values in different countries are reflected
in ads (Albers-Miller & Gelb, 1996; Pollay, 1983). But a consumer response study
could further clarify which cultural value dimensions determine different celebrity
endorsement strategies.
Since advertising is a multifaceted and multidimensional cultural phenomenon,
future studies should advance the descriptive nature of this study. They should also
provide more detailed explanations to represent the complex interplay of multiple
factors such as cultural values, socioeconomic factors, and advertising and media
types.

Notes
[1] For instance, the magazine medium in Korea is not well developed in terms of target
segmentation and magazine types because of small market size and low readership. TV
commercials may not be comparable either, because Korea has mostly 15-second TV
commercials and no ads inserted during programming.
[2] The measurement of Korean newspaper ads is called TAN . The size of Korean ads adopted in
this study is 7 1/2 TAN (about A4 size, 36.5 cm diagonally). Since US newspapers are narrower
than Korean newspapers (59 cm: 62 cm diagonally), the size of the US sample of advertisements
was calculated as 59: x /62: 36.5.
[3] It should be noted that the price range from low to high was classified based on product types
that fall into each of the three levels of involvement, but that this range is set somewhat
arbitrarily. The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewer who addressed this issue.
[4] One anonymous reviewer addressed the possibility that the higher prevalence of product-
related celebrity endorsers in US ads may be associated with the heavier representation of
certain types of products in US ads. Although this study did not report details on the
presentation of each product type in the two countries’ ads, the original coding scheme
included 21 types of product categories. An ad hoc analysis shows that product types presented
in each country’s ads are not saliently different from each other, in that education/publication,
business/finance, computer, and telecommunication/Internet categories are most frequently
presented in both countries’ ads. Likewise, celebrity endorsers were most prevalent in the
product type ads, which rules out the alternative explanation why the US ads present more
product-related celebrity endorsers. The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewer
who addressed this issue.
[5] Based on one anonymous reviewer’s suggestion, the author conducted preliminary analyses to
see whether this finding in newspaper ads is consistent with that in magazine and TV ads
conducted between 2001 and 2002. A similar pattern was found in ads delivered by the two
media vehicles, in that Korean ads presented more celebrity endorsers than US ads. However,
the results should remain preliminary and tentative, because the data available deal with a
global magazine rather than a domestic magazine. Also, the scheme employed in coding ads in
magazines and TV is different from that used in this study. Thus, systematic cross-media
comparisons cannot be accomplished.
 Asian Journal of Communication 149

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152 H.-J. Paek

Appendix A: Operationalization of the Variables

Expert celebrity endorsers:
1. Product-relevant celebrity endorser with age 0 to 25 (0.97)
2. Product-relevant celebrity endorser with age 26 to 50 (0.98)
3. Product-relevant celebrity endorser with age 51(0.99)
/

Non-expert celebrity endorsers:

1. Product-not-relevant celebrity endorser with age 0 to 25 (0.95)
2. Product-not-relevant celebrity endorser with age 26 to 50 (0.92)
3. Product-not-relevant celebrity endorser with age 51(0.92)
/

Non-celebrity endorsers:
1. With age 0 to 25 (0.92)
2. With age 26 to 50 (0.89)
3. With age 51(0.93)
/

Involvement Scale: (0.91)*

1. Price of product: low, medium, high (0.98)
Low: less than $20
e.g. stationery, food, hair care, batteries, OTC medicine, toothbrush and
toothpaste
Medium: about $21 200
/

e.g. fashion apparel, watches, airline tickets, hotels, cameras, telephone/

cellular service
High: more than $200
e.g. cars, jewelry, computers, electronics, business products such as real
estate, insurance, consulting and finance, company networking/hosting
services

2. Durability, period of use of product: short, medium, long (0.98)

Short: one-time use or used only a few times
e.g. food, hair care, batteries, airline tickets, hotels, home-office goods
Medium: used in about a year
e.g. vitamins, diet pills, clothes and shoes
Long: durable for a long time, or never worn out
e.g. cars, jewelry, computers, electronics, telecommunication services,
business products, home-office furniture, publications

3. Frequency of product purchase: frequent, medium, less frequent (0.91)

Frequent: more than one time per month
e.g. food, hair care, batteries, OTC medicine, home-office goods
 Asian Journal of Communication 153

Medium: a couple of times per year

e.g. fashion apparel, watches, airline tickets, hotels, publications
Less frequent: only one time or a few times in a lifetime
e.g. cars, jewelry, computers, electronics, diet pills, business products,
home-office furniture

4. Consequences of bad decisions of product purchase: low, high (0.97)

Low: less affective; not much damage; okay just for trial
e.g. food, hair care, batteries, airline tickets, hotels, home-office goods
High: very much affective; financial and mental damage; when not satisfied with
these products, you might want to tell your friends or families not to buy the
products
e.g. cars, computers, electronics, business products, home-office furniture

Product nationality (0.96)

Domestic product: essentially made for the purpose of serving domestic
customers; made, sold, and advertised domestically; including joint company
with foreign company, M&A, or just export products
International (global/transnational/multinational) product: well-known, world-
wide brands; made, sold, and advertised globally; made for and used by
customers worldwide
Eastern model (0.99): mostly easily picked as pacific islanders: Koreans, Japanese,
Chinese, South Asians, and Mongolians
Western model (0.87): Caucasian, Hispanic and Blacks, basically all the races
excluding Asians
*Indicates Cronbach’s alpha reliability; otherwise, intercoder reliability.

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