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Keywords
Media, Sport, Advertising, Publishing industry
Abstract
This research attempted to investigate why sport themes are used in advertisements, and the motives that lead companies and advertisers to use sport celebrities and sport concepts in advertisements. The detailed examination of the fieldwork took place in Sydney, prior to and during the 2000 Olympic Games. Printed media were observed for a period of five to six months. Many parameters were taken into consideration comparing three monthly magazines and two daily newspapers in order to gain knowledge and provide answers to the fundamental questions. In addition, two famous athletes, a sport manager and an advertising executive were interviewed. Furthermore the outcome of the research showed that Olympic Games did not play a catalyst role in sport advertisement issues in the particular print media. It also concluded that the selection procedures that advertising companies followed, in order to select athletes, were not based only on their achievements but mostly were related to their personalities.
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Introduction
Advertising started playing an active role in the economy of developed societies from the early 1930s. From that period of time advertising was connected to celebrities (Patti and Frazer, 1988). Celebrities acted as spokespersons, in order to advertise and promote products, services and ideas. Those celebrities came from the art scene, modelling, sports and the movie industry. The first advertisers used celebrities as pioneers in order to dictate trends. Today advertising strategies, which involve celebrities, are becoming more and more sophisticated and complicated.
This study attempted to examine issues related to the involvement of sport celebrities in advertising. More analytically this research attempted first to analyse the motives that lead companies and advertisers to use sports or athletes in their advertising campaigns, and second to examine the appearance of sport celebrities and concepts in printed media prior to and during the 2000 Olympic Games.
Sport celebrities in advertising
Today sports have a universal appeal and are associated with many aspects of life (Mullin et al., 1993). With the global expansion of colour television and sport broadcasting the percentage of population that...