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The allure of celebrities: unpacking their polysemic consumer appeal

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The allure of celebrities: unpacking their polysemic consumer appeal. / Wolfeil, Markus; Patterson, Anthony; Gould, Stephen.
In: European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 53, No. 10, 07.10.2019, p. 2025-2053.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Harvard

Wolfeil, M, Patterson, A & Gould, S 2019, 'The allure of celebrities: unpacking their polysemic consumer appeal', European Journal of Marketing, vol. 53, no. 10, pp. 2025-2053. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejm-01-2017-0052

APA

Wolfeil, M., Patterson, A., & Gould, S. (2019). The allure of celebrities: unpacking their polysemic consumer appeal. European Journal of Marketing, 53(10), 2025-2053. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejm-01-2017-0052

Vancouver

Wolfeil M, Patterson A, Gould S. The allure of celebrities: unpacking their polysemic consumer appeal. European Journal of Marketing. 2019 Oct 7;53(10):2025-2053. Epub 2019 Jun 5. doi: 10.1108/ejm-01-2017-0052

Author

Wolfeil, Markus ; Patterson, Anthony ; Gould, Stephen. / The allure of celebrities : unpacking their polysemic consumer appeal. In: European Journal of Marketing. 2019 ; Vol. 53, No. 10. pp. 2025-2053.

Bibtex

@article{29f56c2802714eeb9ea869d18ed76f63,
title = "The allure of celebrities: unpacking their polysemic consumer appeal",
abstract = "Purpose This paper aims to explain a celebrity's deep resonance with consumers by unpacking the individual constituents of a celebrity's polysemic appeal. While celebrities are traditionally theorised as unidimensional semiotic receptacles of cultural meaning, the authors conceptualise them here instead as human beings/performers with a multi-constitutional, polysemic consumer appeal. Design/methodology/approach Supporting evidence is drawn from autoethnographic data collected over a total period of 25 months and structured through a hermeneutic analysis. Findings In rehumanising the celebrity, the study finds that each celebrity offers the individual consumer a unique and very personal parasocial appeal as the performer, the private person behind the public performer, the tangible manifestation of either through products and the social link to other consumers. The stronger these constituents, individually or symbiotically, appeal to the consumer's personal desires, the more s/he feels emotionally attached to this particular celebrity.Originality/value While prior research on celebrity appeal has tended to enshrine celebrities in a {"}dehumanised{"} structuralist semiosis, which erases the very idea of individualised consumer meanings, this paper reveals the multi-constitutional polysemy of any particular celebrity's personal appeal as a performer and human being to any particular consumer.",
author = "Markus Wolfeil and Anthony Patterson and Stephen Gould",
year = "2019",
month = oct,
day = "7",
doi = "10.1108/ejm-01-2017-0052",
language = "English",
volume = "53",
pages = "2025--2053",
journal = "European Journal of Marketing",
issn = "0309-0566",
publisher = "Emerald",
number = "10",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - The allure of celebrities

T2 - unpacking their polysemic consumer appeal

AU - Wolfeil, Markus

AU - Patterson, Anthony

AU - Gould, Stephen

PY - 2019/10/7

Y1 - 2019/10/7

N2 - Purpose This paper aims to explain a celebrity's deep resonance with consumers by unpacking the individual constituents of a celebrity's polysemic appeal. While celebrities are traditionally theorised as unidimensional semiotic receptacles of cultural meaning, the authors conceptualise them here instead as human beings/performers with a multi-constitutional, polysemic consumer appeal. Design/methodology/approach Supporting evidence is drawn from autoethnographic data collected over a total period of 25 months and structured through a hermeneutic analysis. Findings In rehumanising the celebrity, the study finds that each celebrity offers the individual consumer a unique and very personal parasocial appeal as the performer, the private person behind the public performer, the tangible manifestation of either through products and the social link to other consumers. The stronger these constituents, individually or symbiotically, appeal to the consumer's personal desires, the more s/he feels emotionally attached to this particular celebrity.Originality/value While prior research on celebrity appeal has tended to enshrine celebrities in a "dehumanised" structuralist semiosis, which erases the very idea of individualised consumer meanings, this paper reveals the multi-constitutional polysemy of any particular celebrity's personal appeal as a performer and human being to any particular consumer.

AB - Purpose This paper aims to explain a celebrity's deep resonance with consumers by unpacking the individual constituents of a celebrity's polysemic appeal. While celebrities are traditionally theorised as unidimensional semiotic receptacles of cultural meaning, the authors conceptualise them here instead as human beings/performers with a multi-constitutional, polysemic consumer appeal. Design/methodology/approach Supporting evidence is drawn from autoethnographic data collected over a total period of 25 months and structured through a hermeneutic analysis. Findings In rehumanising the celebrity, the study finds that each celebrity offers the individual consumer a unique and very personal parasocial appeal as the performer, the private person behind the public performer, the tangible manifestation of either through products and the social link to other consumers. The stronger these constituents, individually or symbiotically, appeal to the consumer's personal desires, the more s/he feels emotionally attached to this particular celebrity.Originality/value While prior research on celebrity appeal has tended to enshrine celebrities in a "dehumanised" structuralist semiosis, which erases the very idea of individualised consumer meanings, this paper reveals the multi-constitutional polysemy of any particular celebrity's personal appeal as a performer and human being to any particular consumer.

U2 - 10.1108/ejm-01-2017-0052

DO - 10.1108/ejm-01-2017-0052

M3 - Journal article

VL - 53

SP - 2025

EP - 2053

JO - European Journal of Marketing

JF - European Journal of Marketing

SN - 0309-0566

IS - 10

ER -