For anyone buried in their life’s work…
Or their children’s lives…
Or just busy in general…
Or if you live under a rock without internet…
We will make the Subway scandal short and sweet for you:
Subway’s long-standing celebrity spokesperson, Jared Fogle. Jared has plead guilty to federal child pornography charges and illicit sexual conduct with minors.
As you can imagine, it was not a pretty media onset for either Fogle or Subway as a whole…
Yes, of course ties were cut with their not so celebrity Fogle but this raised an excellent question by attorney, Ken Hardison on TV advertising:
“Should I go on camera myself or hire a spokesperson or better yet, should I hire a celebrity spokesperson?”
And Hardison says that it all depends on these factors and their corollary questions:
Do you want to:
- Be your own spokesperson,
- Use a spokesperson or
- Use a celebrity spokesperson
And the questions you should be asking are:
- Am I comfortable in front of a camera?
- Do I mind being a local celebrity and giving up my privacy?
- Do I have a face for radio? OR Do I come across as honest and approachable on television?
- Can I really afford a spokesperson (it’s not that expensive, by the way) or better yet, a celebrity spokesperson (very expensive)
- What will be my contingency plan should a ‘Jared’ Subway-type incident happen?
We think Hardison is SPOT on with these questions and we think they are essential to answer when deciding on TV advertisement…
Why?
Because A LOT of time and money goes into the production of such advertisements and while celebrity endorsements do work, there are great risks involved…as there are with finding a spokesperson (remember Fogle was NOT a celebrity when starting out with Subway).
Our spokesperson and representative image of the firm has always been someone within the firm…
What’s your take on it, business owners and advertisers?
