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The U.S. market has a long tradition of celebrity spokespeople who endorse products they basically have nothing to do with. A classic example was in 1984, when soap opera actor Chris Robinson held a bottle of Vicks Formula 44 cough syrup and reassured America with the pledge: “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV."
Since then, consumers have somehow accepted that a swimmer could discern the best cell-phone carrier (Michael Phelps for AT&T); a race car driver was in a position to endorse a web-hosting service (Danica Patrick for GoDaddy); and—most preposterous of all—that the Kardashian sisters shop at Sears.
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