Consumer response to negative celebrity publicity: the effects of moral reasoning strategies and fan identification
| Pages | 114-123 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-10-2018-2064 |
| Published date | 08 July 2019 |
| Date | 08 July 2019 |
| Author | Sai Wang,Ki Joon Kim |
Consumer response to negative celebrity
publicity: the effects of moral reasoning
strategies and fan identification
Sai Wang and Ki Joon Kim
Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Abstract
Purpose –In the context of celebrity endorsement, this study aims to demonstrate that the ways in which consumers adopt moral reasoning
strategies (i.e. rationalization, decoupling and coupling) are largely dependent on the severity (i.e. high vs low) of celebrity transgressions and the
degree to which they personally identify with the celebrity.
Design/methodology/approach –A between-subjects online experiment (N=144) with two conditions, representing high- and low-severity
celebrity transgressions, was conducted. Participants’attitudes toward the celebrity and endorsed brand, their purchase intention for the endorsed
product and the degrees to which they identified with the celebrity and adopted the three types of moral reasoningstrategies were assessed.
Findings –The rationalization and decoupling strategies mediate the effects of highly negative information about a celebrity on consumer attitudes
toward the celebrity and endorsed brand as well as on purchase intention for the endorsed product. In addition, consum ers who identify strongly as
fans of the celebrity in question are more likely to activate rationalization and decoupling strategies to process and evaluate transgressive behaviors
than those with weaker fan identification.
Originality/value –By exploring the ways in which moral reasoning and fan identification work in processing negative information, this study
provides insights into the psychological process through which negative news coverage of a celebrityendorser influences consumer attitudes and
purchase intention.
Keywords Moral reasoning, Purchase intention, Brand attitude, Celebrity endorsement, Fan identification, Celebrity transgression
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Celebrity endorsement is known to have positive effects on the
trustworthiness, believability, likeability and persuasiveness of
advertising products (Freiden, 1984). Celebrity endorsement
attracts consumers’attention to ad contents, increases brand
recall and awareness and shapes the brand’s image by
extending the endorsers’identities and personalities onto the
advertised products (Agrawal andKamakura, 1995;Atkin and
Block, 1983;Choi and Rifon, 2007;Kamins et al.,1989).
However, associating a brand with a celebrity endorser is not
without risk. Negative publicity or information about celebrity
endorsers is particularly problematic because not only does it
tarnish the celebrity’s own reputation,but it also generates
adverse consumer perceptions of endorsed brands and
companies (Bailey, 2007;Edwards and La Ferle, 2009;Fong
and Wyer, 2012;Till andShimp, 1998;Um, 2013;White et al.,
2009).
Ironically, consumersoften tolerate a celebrity’s misbehavior
and continue to express support for the wrongdoer,as
exemplified when Justin Bieber’s racist jokes became public,
suggesting the complexity of the psychological process through
which consumers evaluate negative publicity about a celebrity
endorser. This study explores this process by examining the
ways in which different types of moral reasoning strategies
(rationalization, decoupling and coupling) adopted by
consumers shape their perceptions of endorsers and brands
when exposed to negative information of varying severity levels
(high vs low) about the celebrity. Moreover, given that the
extent to which fans identifywith a celebrity largely determines
their level of tolerance for the celebrity’s transgressions (Um,
2013), this study investigates the moderating effect of fan
identification on the relationship between the severity of
negative informationand moral reasoning strategies.
In sum, this study intends to make several contributions to
existing literature by applying the Meaning Transfer Theory
(McCracken, 1989) in the context of celebrity endorsement
and demonstrating the extent to which negative evaluations of
endorsed brands and products, transferred from a tainted
celebrity, depends on the severity of the committed
transgression. Furthermore, this study extends the moral
reasoning literature (Bhattacharjee et al.,2013;Lee and Kwak,
2016;Lee et al.,2015) by systematically examining the ways in
which moral reasoning strategies operate simultaneously to
shape consumer attitudes and behaviors when exposed to
varying severities of celebrity transgression. Lastly, this study
Thecurrentissueandfulltextarchiveofthisjournalisavailableon
Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
29/1 (2020) 114–123
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/JPBM-10-2018-2064]
Received 16 October2018
Revised 1 March 2019
29 May 2019
5 June 2019
Accepted 7 June 2019
114
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