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• The New Celebrities
• Brokering with The Stars: A View…
• g-Think Survey Results: Celebrity
• Celebrity!
• The End of the Line for the Stretched-Limo?
• Vanity Fair Goes Green
• Doing Good and Being Cool Too

Awakening Consumers are more likely to be influenced in their purchasing decisions if a product is endorsed by Paris Hilton than by George W. Bush, although the president does edge out Britney Spears.

These are just some of the results from g-Think’s second Celebrity Survey. This time, we sent a panel of Awakening Consumers a list of celebrities and asked them the following question: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely would you be to buy a particular brand or support a cause if it was endorsed by the following celebrities?” (1 = the celebrity’s endorsement would KEEP ME AWAY from the brand or cause; and 10 = I would EMPHATICALLY SUPPORT the brand or cause on this person’s word alone.)

While the list of celebrities was hardly all-inclusive, the results clearly indicated that all is not equal in the land of celebrity endorsement, at least not among Awakening Consumers. Clearly, marketers trying to reach this audience had better think twice about enlisting a celebrity to support a cause or endorse a product. Scoring among the lowest on the scale were

Tucker Carlson—1.75
Dick Cheney—2.06
Michael Jackson—2.06
Britney Spears—2.21
George W. Bush—2.30
Paris Hilton—2.47

At the other end of the scale—those celebrities likely to attract emphatic support—were

Paul Newman—7.20
Bono—6.33
Bill Clinton—6.31
George Clooney—6.11
Oprah Winfrey—6.09

Some celebrities ranked surprisingly low for recognition, despite garnering media attention. Jeff Immelt, the dynamic leader of GE’s move to go green, for example, scored the lowest on the recognition scale, and Bono, who for years has been a high-profile champion of global causes, fared little better. Achieving 100% recognition among our Awakening Consumer panel were political leaders Bill Clinton and Colin Powell; entertainment celebrities Britney Spears and Bruce Springsteen; and business tycoon Bill Gates. By contrast, Tucker Carlson isn’t likely to be approached to endorse a product or cause any time soon. He fared the worst of the lot—he was both the least recognized and the biggest turnoff among our Awakening Consumers.

Note: Our panel members were qualified as Awakening Consumers based on their response to an earlier survey in which they were asked if they ever considered the values of a company before making a purchase (see g-Think Celebrity Survey)

Here are the average scores for each of the celebrities on our list (1=lowest, 10=highest):
Paul Newman 7.20
Bill Clinton 6.31
Bono 6.11
Oprah Winfrey 6.09
Michael J. Fox 6.06
Lance Armstrong 5.69
Al Gore 5.61
Tom Hanks 5.59
Bill Gates 5.59
Colin Powell 5.55
Susan Sarandon 5.54
Tiger Woods 5.47
Bruce Springsteen 5.45
Bob Geldof 5.38
Don Cheadle 5.29
Julia Roberts 5.21
Emma Thompson 5.15
Harrison Ford 5.13
Janeane Garofalo 4.97
Angelina Jolie 4.95
Cameron Diaz 4.83
Michael Moore 4.76
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. 4.74
Al Franken 4.74
Richard Gere 4.63
Martha Stewart 4.59
Katie Couric 4.54
Dwyane Wade 4.33
Madonna 4.11
Mos Def 3.95
Alec Baldwin 3.87
Kanye West 3.78
Tim Duncan 3.69
Donald Trump 3.68
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 3.60
Condoleeza Rice 3.52
Jeff Immelt 3.25
Kobe Bryant 3.20
Eminem 3.18
Eli Manning 3.14
Bill OReilly 3.12
Sean “Diddy” Combs 2.88
Jessica Simpson 2.71
Tom Cruise 2.70
Paris Hilton 2.47
George W. Bush 2.30
Britney Spears 2.21
Dick Cheney 2.06
Michael Jackson 2.06
Tucker Carlson 1.75
Source: g-Think