Cultural Differences in Television Celebrity Use in the United States and Lebanon‪.‬

INTRODUCTION Jagdish and Kamakura (1995) argued that celebrity endorsement has become a prevalent form of advertising in the United States. Approximately 20% of all television commercials feature a famous person, and approximately 10% of the dollars spent on television advertising are used in celebrity endorsement advertisements (Advertising Age 1987; Sherman 1985). Schickel (1985) stated that American society is fascinated with celebrities and individuals from various fields such as, politics, sports, entertainment, business, fashion, and others are often elevated to celebrity status. Shimp (2000) estimated that around one-quarter of all commercials screened in the United States include celebrity endorsers. Celebrities have been able to generate millions of dollars in endorsement deals to appear in advertisements. Erdogan (1999) postulated that companies invest large sums of money to align their brands and themselves with endorsers. For example, Nike signed a $100 million, five-year contract with Tiger Woods for his endorsements (Choi et al. 2005).