PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Lee, Jung-Gyo AU - Thorson, Esther TI - The Impact of Celebrity–Product Incongruence on the Effectiveness of Product Endorsement AID - 10.2501/S0021849908080446 DP - 2008 Sep 01 TA - Journal of Advertising Research PG - 433--449 VI - 48 IP - 3 4099 - http://www.journalofadvertisingresearch.com/content/48/3/433.short 4100 - http://www.journalofadvertisingresearch.com/content/48/3/433.full SO - J Advert Res2008 Sep 01; 48 AB - The present study examines how different degrees of celebrity–product incongruence influence the persuasiveness of celebrity endorsement. Schema-congruity framework provides the theoretical basis for suggesting that a moderate mismatch between a celebrity's image and a product's image would produce more favorable responses to advertisements than either a complete match or an extreme mismatch. This study also looks at how consumer characteristics, namely an individual's own levels of enduring involvement with a product category, moderate schema congruity effects. Two experiments were conducted to test these issues using two types of match-up factors: physical attractiveness and expertise of a celebrity endorser. The results show that celebrity endorsements are evaluated more favorably in terms of purchase intention when there is a moderate mismatch than when there is either a complete match or an extreme mismatch. Such effects are found to be more pronounced among participants with higher product involvement than those with lower product involvement.