Reverse mortgage lenders have a history with celebrities ranging from James Garner, Robert Wagner, and most recently the addition of Peter Graves from American Advisors Group.
However, a recent AdweekMedia/Harris Poll found wide variations in the likelihood viewers will find different kinds of celebs convincing in the role of endorser.
Respondents were asked to say which of five types of celebrities they find “most persuasive” and which they find “least persuasive” as endorsers of products in ads. Business leaders had the highest “most persuasive” vote (37 percent), followed by athletes (21 percent), TV/movie stars (18 percent), singers/musicians (14 percent) and former political figures (10 percent).
The former politicians were in a class by themselves when it came to the “least persuasive” vote, getting 39 percent of it. TV/movie stars were the runners-up for this dubious honor (23 percent), followed by business leaders (14 percent), athletes (13 percent) and singers/musicians (11 percent).
The “most persuasive” tally for business leaders was vastly higher among the poll’s 55-and-older cohort (46 percent) than it was among the 18-34-year-olds (28 percent). See the graph below showing the most persuasive:
