The market of today consist of products/services who resemble each other, the differences are small. Their for it’s necessary for the companies to provide added values to the product so it will stand out from the rest of the products and lead to purchase. A well used strategy in the fashion industry is marketing with celebrities, this is considered successful because it brings attention and strengthening to the brand. Because of this, the strategy also branch out to other industries, but the question is if it’s as successful there? There’s also a serious down-side with the strategy and that is that there’s a great risk with using celebrities. These could, of different reasons, be dangerous for the companies and cause large amount of costs. This is something that the companies must respect. This thesis aims to describe and compare why companies use celebrities in their commercials to strengthening their brand. It will also examine the procedure of the companies choice of celebrity and contingent risks that may emerge of the strategy. The writers have chosen a corporate management perspective and their for the customer perspective will not be brought up. The study has been realized with a qualitative study, totaly eight marketing managers at different companies, within different industries where interviewed. With a helping hand from the theories, the authors have succeeded to answer the study’s question. The main theory were brand identity. After that the empirical data has been analyzed with help from the theories, the authors have reached following conclusions. The ultimate reason why companies co-operate with celebrities are to create attention and to increase the knowledge of the brand. The celebrity can be useful by many different reasons, no matter what goals or effects the companies want to achieve, the strategy is considered successful. Companies first choice of celebrity is someone who can represent the identity that the company wants to be associated with, for example different values. In general, companies don’t reflect much about the risks that may appear. / Dagens marknad består till stor del av produkter/tjänster som liknar varandra, skillnaderna är ofta små. Därför krävs det att företagen tillför ett mervärde till produkten som gör att den sticker ut från mängden, vilket i sin tur ska leda till köp. En välanvänd strategi inom klädbranschen är marknadsföring med kändisar, denna anses vara framgångsrik eftersom den ger stor uppmärksamhet och stärker varumärket. Av denna anledning har även strategin spritt sig till andra branscher, men frågan är om den är lika lyckosam även där? Det finns dock en allvarlig baksida med strategin och det är att det finns stora risker med att använda sig av kändisar. Dessa kan av olika anledningar vara till skada för företaget och orsaka stora kostnader. Detta är något företagen måste ha i beaktning. Syftet är att beskriva och jämföra varför företag använder sig av kända personer för att stärka sitt varumärke. Dessutom kommer det att undersökas hur företag går tillväga i sitt val av kändis samt vilka eventuella risker som kan uppstå med denna marknadsföringsstrategi. Författarna har valt att utgå från ett ledningsperspektiv och därför kommer inte kundperspektivet att belysas. Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ ansats, totalt intervjuades åtta stycken marknadschefer på olika företag inom olika branscher. Med hjälp av teorier inom området så har författarna lyckats besvara forskningsfrågan. Huvudteorin var brand identity. Efter att den empiriska data analyserats med hjälp av teorierna så har författarna kommit fram till följande slutsatser. Den främsta anledningen till att företag använder sig av kändisar är för att skapa uppmärksamhet och öka kännedomen om varumärket. Kändisen kan användas i marknadsföring av många olika anledningar, oavsett vilka mål företaget har och vilka effekter man vill uppnå, strategin anses vara lyckosam oavsett mål. Företag väljer i första hand en kändis som kan representera det som företaget vill förknippas med, till exempel olika värden eller ledord. Generellt sett så tar företag lätt på de risker som kan uppstå när de använder sig av en kändis i sin reklam.

The intention of this study is to find out how the female celebrity is portrayed in women’s magazines directed at women of different age groups. The magazines that I have chosen to analyse are Frida, Veckorevyn and Damernas Värld. My aim is to find out what kind of celebrity appears in the magazines in terms of occupation and topics in the articles. Furthermore, the aim is also to determine whether the celebrity is portrayed in a different or similar way depending on the target group. This thesis is done from a gender perspective in order to elucidate what distinguishes the celebrity in the context of the celebrity being female. The frameworks of theories are the following: culture theory, ideology, stereotypes, homo-sociality and connotation and denotation. The methods used to analyse the texts were content analysis and qualitative discourse analysis. Since images of the female celebrities have also been of importance, I have used the method of semiotics for picture analysis. I discovered that there are both differences and similarities in how the female celebrity is portrayed, in relation to different age categories. It appears there are more types of women celebrities in Damernas Värld in-comparison to Frida and Veckorevyn, as not only do the celebrities in Damernas Värld have more varied occupations, they also engage in more topics in their interviews. I found that the celebrity woman is not always portrayed in exactly the same light. However, I could identify the average woman which appears most frequently in all the magazines. The portrayal of the celebrity woman is usually built on contrasts and stereotypes. The occupation is typically an actress or a singer; she is usually white, heterosexual and rich. Her traits are typically being tough and independent, yet in conjunction considerate and friendly. She is also glamorous but ordinary, sexy but sweet. The underlying preconceptions of femininity are never challenged by the journalist’s way of portraying the celebrities.

It is as easy to imagine that celebrities featured in anti-drug commercials uniformly encourage all viewers to abstain from drugs, as it is to imagine that the more closely viewers watch these commercials, the more effective the messages will be. The current research reconsiders both assumptions. Highly anti-marijuana (state of balance) and highly pro-marijuana (state of imbalance) viewers were selected, and their processing style (central vs. peripheral) was manipulated as they watched commercials (with anti-marijuana messages from celebrities for whom all viewers previously reported high appeal). The dependent measures were SOA (Strength of Association conveys the likelihood that attitudes will automatically activate to guide behavior related to marijuana), change in celebrity appeal (pre- to post-commercial), and level of counter argument after the messages. The findings confirm past research (Wagner and Sundar, 2003) suggesting that a peripheral processing style is more effective than central processing, in terms of SOA. They also suggest the usefulness of balance theory (Heider, 1946; Osgood and Tannenbaum, 1966) in studying media effects. In particular, they help understand how the presence of a celebrity, instead of leading to a decrease in the appeal of drugs for its viewers, may have unintended effects of a decrease in the appeal of the celebrity bearing the anti-drug message, and of greater counter-argument after the message. Ironically, these unintended effects were characteristic mostly of pro marijuana viewers who employed a central message processing style; this suggests that advertisers need to reconsider the effectiveness of this genre of messages, and underscores the relevance of social psychology to mass communication. / text

The purpose of this study was to analyze the cover images of Vanity Fair magazine from the years 1983 to 2008. The study attempted to determine if Vanity Fair’s covers have become more focused on celebrities over time and also analyzed how Vanity Fair defines a celebrity. The study used grounded theory from a case study perspective. An additional research question was to determine the number of politically-based cover images versus the number of celebrity-based cover images. This research used content analysis methodology. Both open and axial coding were used. Results were entered into Microsoft Excel and analyzed for statistical significance. / Department of Journalism

This theises aims to extend the understanding of how representation of gender is produced and reproduced in the young women’s magazine Frida. We examine this through analyzing pictures of male and female celebrities in a selected number of magazines from the year of 2013. We use a quantitative analysis of the pictures, as well as a supplementary quantitative analysis of ajectives used to describe male and female celebrities in captions. We research what types of patterns we can find in these analyses that construct representations of gender, also surveying how the celebrities in the magazine look. Our analysis shows us that the context of Frida contains several recurring visual patterns that preserves a representation of men being superior to women. We also find that for both men and women in the magazine- their attractive exterior is their most prominent attribute. That is not only perceived visually, but also reinforced by the editorial text. The result also shows us that the celebrities shown in the Frida is a very homogeneous group, with very similar attributes.

This study examines the relationships between celebrities and their followers through social networking sites (SNS). A total of 239 participants completed the survey through MTurk. The results show that celebrities’ self-disclosure on SNS increases their Parasocial Interaction (PI) with fans. In addition, when a celebrity is perceived as trustworthy, s/he would have a higher PI with fans. Meanwhile, celebrities’ self-disclosure was not associated with trustworthiness. Furthermore, time spent on SNS was also not associated with PI. This study also found that type of celebrity does not determine the degree of influence they have on the followers. People have almost same parasocial interaction with their favorite celebrity whether the celebrity is a singer, athlete, actor, or any other. Additionally, there is no specific social networking site on which people have a stronger PI with celebrities. PI with celebrities on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and the other platforms is almost the same.

This paper focuses on investigating how the Hong Kong celebrities achieve cohesion and coherence in their oral interviews and the ideological differences between male and female. In order to explore these celebrities' text structure and cohesive ties, I examine their discourse grammar and the usage of cohesive devices. To further understand how these celebrities achieve coherence, I focus on how they relate their texts to the context and make them meaningful to the listener. With the use of discourse analysis, I also attempt to identify the ideologies these celebrities have by analysing their interviews, and highlight the ideological differences between male and female. This paper discusses the various strategies in which the celebrities employ in order to achieve cohesion and coherence. They make their texts cohesive by adopting different cohesive devices. They have different ways to make their texts coherent. One can examine the meaning of a text by analysing the speech he or she makes. One can also understand his or her ideologies by looking at how he or she structures sentences. 本論文研究香港的名人在他們的采訪中如何做到語義連貫及順暢，並研究男性與女性在采訪中思維方式的差別。本文通過研究名人們的語篇語法和他們如何使用銜接手段來探討他們的語篇結構和句子銜接方法。為了研究香港名人如何做到語義流暢，本文分析這些香港名人如何聯系上下文使聽眾理解他們的意思。本文借助語篇分析，通過研究名人的采訪來明確他們的思維方式，並突出男性與女性思維方式的差別。本研究探討了名人為了實現語義連貫與順暢而使用的多種方法，他們使用不同的銜接手段來實現語義連貫，他們也有不用的方法使語盲流暢、易懂。透過分析壹個人的語篇，可以研究他或她話語的涵義。透過分析壹個人話語中的句子結構，可以去理解他或她的思維方式。

Este trabalho tem por objetivo compreender como ocorre o processo de celebrificação – isto é, a transformação de uma pessoa em celebridade – na internet. Para investigar este fenômeno, optou-se pelo estudo do caso da cantora de forró Stefhany do CrossFox, cujo clipe amador da música “Eu Sou Stefhany”, disponibilizado no YouTube, foi reproduzido e comentado amplamente em sites, blogs e redes sociais após ser postado no Papel Pop, em 2009. Neste blog, de 5 de fevereiro de 2009 (primeira postagem) a 9 de novembro de 2011 (última postagem), foram publicadas 24 notas sobre a trajetória da carreira da jovem, de onde foram coletados todos os 2.611 comentários feitos nestes posts. Estes comentários compuseram o corpus da pesquisa, ao qual foi aplicada a técnica da análise de conteúdo para mapear dados sobre o processo de celebrificação pelo qual Stefhany passou. Para a análise das informações coletadas neste mapeamento, foram utilizadas quatro categorias. A primeira categoria – que trata da descentralização midiática da internet e seus canais de publicação, o que possibilita a circulação de conteúdos e personagens amadores – apresenta como Stefhany despertou interesse a partir da primeira nota postada a seu respeito na rede pelo Papel Pop. Na segunda categoria, analisa-se como Stefhany chamou a atenção dos leitores pela sua performance neste vídeo (coreografias, roupas, locações, a letra da música e outros elementos da gravação), o que fez com que ela se tornasse assunto das conversações. Na terceira etapa, examina-se a atuação do blog como plataforma midiática que deu grande visibilidade à cantora e a popularidade do blogueiro neste processo. Relata-se também como o digital trash – linguagem com que o blog e Stefhany são identificados – funciona como atrativo para a leitura do Papel Pop e na mobilização em torno dos personagens e produções nele expostas. Na quarta categoria, sob a perspectiva performática, é analisado como o posicionamento dos leitores (ao discutirem entre si a performance da cantora e dados referentes à jovem) fez com que Stefhany fosse situada no centro das atenções. Os resultados deste estudo apontam para a internet e seus canais de publicação como plataformas de visibilidade onde personagens anônimos – a partir do interesse, da mobilização e das conversações que despertam em torno de si pelas suas performances – são transformados em celebridades do meio, como ocorreu com Stefhany do CrossFox. / This work aims to understand how the process of internet celebrification occurs – that is, the transformation of a person in a celebrity in the internet. To investigate this phenomenon, was chosen the case study on the forró singer Stefhany do CrossFox (Stefhany of CrossFox), whose amateur video clip of the song “Eu Sou Stefhany” (I Am Stefhany), available on YouTube, was widely reproduced and commented on websites, blogs and social networks after being posted on Papel Pop in 2009. In this blog, from February 5, 2009 (the first post) to November 9, 2011 (the last post), 24 notes were published on the career trajectory of the young woman, from where were collected all the 2.611 comments of these posts. These comments are the research corpus, on which was applied the content analysis technique to map data on the celebrification process through which Stefhany went. For the analysis of information collected on this mapping, we used four categories. The first category - that deals with the media decentralization of the Internet and its publishing channels, allowing the movement of amateur content and characters – presents how Stefhany has sparked interest from the first note about her posted on web by Papel Pop. In the second category, was analyzed how Stefhany caught the attention of readers from her performance in this video (choreography, clothes, locations, the lyrics and other elements), what made her to become the conversations subject. In the third step, was examined the role of the blog as a media platform which gave great visibility to the singer, as well as the popularity of the blogger in this process. It was also reported how the digital trash - language with which the blog and Stefhany are identified - works as an attraction for the reading of the Papel Pop and the mobilization around the characters and products exposed on the blog. In the fourth category, under the performative perspective was analyzed how the players positioning (when discussing among themselves about the singer's performance and related information on the young woman) have situated Stefhany in the center of attention. The results of this study point to the internet and its publishing channels as visibility platforms where anonymous characters – from the interest, the mobilization and the conversations they create around themselves because of their performances – are turned into celebrities of that medium, as it happened with Stefhany do CrossFox.

Este é um estudo acerca do contrato de comunicação estabelecido em trocas sociais que envolvem os perfis fakes de celebridades no Twitter. Para tanto se discute as especificidades situacionais (finalidade, identidade, dispositivo) e discursivas (legitimidade, credibilidade e captação) na qual se inscrevem os tweet produzidos pelos perfis @nairbello, @hebecamargo e @MussumAlive. O objetivo é compreender a construção destes contratos fundamentados em uma situação notadamente fictícia. O caminho percorrido envolve as interações midiáticas na sociedade, passando pelas celebridades enquanto processos midiáticos até chegar ao discurso, especificadamente, na Semiolinguística, proposta por Charaudeau. Dos perfis fakes de celebridades no Twitter, buscou-se, inicialmente, realizar uma inserção neste universo através de uma pesquisa exploratória envolvendo 1.286 perfis para em seguida delimitar como corpus de análise os @nairbello, @hebecamargo e @MussumAlive. A análise partiu da coleta de dados referentes aos tweets expostos nos três perfis durante o mês de outubro de 2013, levando em consideração que as interações são mediadas pelas funcionalidades do Twitter. As conclusões apontam para a construção dos contratos de comunicação não somente baseado em inscreve-se no Twitter, ao contrário, para que eles sejam estabelecidos e permaneçam visíveis são necessários esforços diários dos participantes no sentido de construir estratégias de manutenção. Tais estratégias abarcam as reapropriações das notícias diárias, reconhecimento mútuo dos participantes, interações com outros famosos, captação de seguidores, utilização da ironia, humor e lúdico. / This is a study on the communication contract established between social actors and celebrities' fake profiles on Twitter. To this end, we discuss the situational (purpose, identity, device) and discursive specificities (legitimacy, credibility and capture) in which tweets produced by the profiles @nairbello, @hebecamargo and @MussumAlive are inscribed. Our aim is to understand the construction of these contracts based on notably fictitious situations. The path followed in this research involves considering the media interactions in society, the celebrities while media processes, and discourse, specifically, in the Semiolinguistics proposed by Charaudeau. Regarding the celebrities' fake profiles we sought to, initially, perform an insertion in this universe through an exploratory research involving 1.286 profiles, in order to later define the corpus of analysis as @nairbello, @hebecamargo and @MussumAlive. The analysis involved data collection of the tweets posted by the three profiles during October 2013. The findings point to the construction of communication not only based on contracts is inscribed on Twitter, on the contrary, the daily efforts of the participants needed to construct maintenance strategies so that they are established and remain visible are. Such strategies encompass the reappropriations daily news, recognition of participants, interactions with other famous, attracting followers, use of irony, humor and playfulness.

Este é um estudo acerca do contrato de comunicação estabelecido em trocas sociais que envolvem os perfis fakes de celebridades no Twitter. Para tanto se discute as especificidades situacionais (finalidade, identidade, dispositivo) e discursivas (legitimidade, credibilidade e captação) na qual se inscrevem os tweet produzidos pelos perfis @nairbello, @hebecamargo e @MussumAlive. O objetivo é compreender a construção destes contratos fundamentados em uma situação notadamente fictícia. O caminho percorrido envolve as interações midiáticas na sociedade, passando pelas celebridades enquanto processos midiáticos até chegar ao discurso, especificadamente, na Semiolinguística, proposta por Charaudeau. Dos perfis fakes de celebridades no Twitter, buscou-se, inicialmente, realizar uma inserção neste universo através de uma pesquisa exploratória envolvendo 1.286 perfis para em seguida delimitar como corpus de análise os @nairbello, @hebecamargo e @MussumAlive. A análise partiu da coleta de dados referentes aos tweets expostos nos três perfis durante o mês de outubro de 2013, levando em consideração que as interações são mediadas pelas funcionalidades do Twitter. As conclusões apontam para a construção dos contratos de comunicação não somente baseado em inscreve-se no Twitter, ao contrário, para que eles sejam estabelecidos e permaneçam visíveis são necessários esforços diários dos participantes no sentido de construir estratégias de manutenção. Tais estratégias abarcam as reapropriações das notícias diárias, reconhecimento mútuo dos participantes, interações com outros famosos, captação de seguidores, utilização da ironia, humor e lúdico. / This is a study on the communication contract established between social actors and celebrities' fake profiles on Twitter. To this end, we discuss the situational (purpose, identity, device) and discursive specificities (legitimacy, credibility and capture) in which tweets produced by the profiles @nairbello, @hebecamargo and @MussumAlive are inscribed. Our aim is to understand the construction of these contracts based on notably fictitious situations. The path followed in this research involves considering the media interactions in society, the celebrities while media processes, and discourse, specifically, in the Semiolinguistics proposed by Charaudeau. Regarding the celebrities' fake profiles we sought to, initially, perform an insertion in this universe through an exploratory research involving 1.286 profiles, in order to later define the corpus of analysis as @nairbello, @hebecamargo and @MussumAlive. The analysis involved data collection of the tweets posted by the three profiles during October 2013. The findings point to the construction of communication not only based on contracts is inscribed on Twitter, on the contrary, the daily efforts of the participants needed to construct maintenance strategies so that they are established and remain visible are. Such strategies encompass the reappropriations daily news, recognition of participants, interactions with other famous, attracting followers, use of irony, humor and playfulness.