Celebrity Endorsements Are Dead, And Kamala Proved It

There was a mildly successful commercial back in 2016 where LeBron James was promoting Sprite. He keeps looking into the camera and saying, “I won’t tell you to drink a Sprite.” It’s supposed to be engaging and funny because you see, normally, when celebrities appear in advertisements, they tell you to buy a product. But here you had LeBron James, appearing in a Sprite commercial, refusing to endorse Sprite. It really subverted everyone’s expectations.

Reverse psychology like this has become popular in advertising because the typical direct, straightforward celebrity endorsement doesn’t have the same impact that it once did. This is also why the idea of “reverse endorsements” has become a thing. This is when a company puts a celebrity on its board of directors to make them seem really invested in the company, when it’s basically a no-show job. Derek Jeter had a “reverse endorsement” deal with a company called RevolutionWear, that makes some kind of high-tech underwear. It all fell apart and ended in lawsuits when the company collapsed, because the world of high-tech underwear is apparently extremely cutthroat.