FiT Publishing

The rise in celebrity athletes’ influence due to social media has had a massive effect on endorsement opportunities. Social media has given celebrity athletes an owned platform from which to leverage their audience into business opportunities, but an understanding of how authenticity affects the consumer was needed. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine how the perceived authenticity of celebrity athletes’ social media endorsement posts affects brand attitudes and purchase intentions. Two experiments were conducted using fictitious Twitter posts including celebrity athletes...Read more

The purpose of the current study, drawing on attribution theory, was to investigate consumers’ attribution process and its impact on their responses to a scandalized athlete and endorsement. The results of the experiment indicate that the distinctiveness of an athlete scandal prompts external attribution while having a negative impact on internal attribution. Additionally, the consistency of an athlete scandal triggers internal attribution. Moreover, the results show that internal (external) attribution has direct negative (positive) impact on attitude toward the scandalized athlete....Read more

In 2012, Nike became the first company in the United Kingdom to have a Twitter campaign banned after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the U.K.’s equivalent of the United States’ Federal Trade Commission, held that soccer star Wayne Rooney had violated rules for clearly communicating to the public that his tweets were advertisements for Nike (Furness, 2012). Nike, through its endorsement deal with Rooney, encouraged Rooney to engage in Twitter messaging as part of its wider “Make It Count” advertising campaign. Rooney’s tweet, which went out to his 4.37 million followers, said: “...Read more

The purpose of the study was two-fold: (1) to examine the influence athletic performance has on the elements of source credibility, and (2) to investigate its impact on the causal relationships among consumers’ brand attitude, attitude toward the advertisement, and purchase intentions. A between-group experimental design was chosen to assess differences in the source credibility based on an athletic endorser’s on-field performance. Findings identified differences in the elements of source credibility based on an athlete endorser’s on-field performance, while the decomposition of the...Read more

Pro football, the game for the ear and the eye … This sport is more than a spectacle, it is a game for all seasons … X’s and O’s on the blackboard are translated into imagination on the field.” This 13 seconds of digitally-altered audio, incorporated by National Football League Films, Inc. into “The Making of Madden NFL ’06,” lies at the heart of the lengthy legal saga between the estate of John Facenda and NFL Films (Facenda Jr. v. N.F.L. Films, Inc.., 542 F.3d 1007 (3rd Cir. 2008). The Third Circuit’s decision is instructive on three key fronts. First, it highlights the continued...Read more

This research reports on two studies that examine the roles of product-endorser “fit” with celebrity and non-celebrity endorsers by comparing the effects of a famous athlete and an unknown model on a variety of consumer responses. Additionally, schema theory is tested as the mechanism driving these effects. The results of the first experiment suggest that a famous athlete is more effective when endorsing a sport brand than a non-sport brand, but only for enhancing the image of the celebrity. In the second experiment, an anonymous model is identified as either a famous athlete or not and is...Read more

The researchers utilize social identity theory to investigate the effect that athlete endorsers have on both brand and team-related attitudes and intentions. As fans identify more strongly with an athlete, the more they intend to purchase the endorsed products. Additionally, a fan’s level of identification with an athlete is positively transferred to their attitude toward the team. The influence of athlete ID on team abandonment was fully mediated through attitude toward the team. However, fans who identified less with the athlete endorser were more likely to abandon the team’s market...Read more

Celebrity endorsements in the sport industry continue to increase both in number and value. For example, sport celebrities ascribe their names to such products as soap, soda, cars, underwear, financial planning services, internet services, bubble gum, and a host of sport specific products (shoes, apparel, sports equipment, etc.). These product endorsements can earn a professional athlete substantial sums of money, and for many professional athletes they can actually earn more from endorsements than their player salaries or earnings. However, endorsements are a form of advertising subject...Read more

After being fined for wearing sponsor logos on their uniform in 2003, jockeys in the 2004 Kentucky Derby were allowed to wear such patches thanks to a court ruling.Read more