Celebrity endorsement as a political marketing strategy in Rauf Aregbesola's 2014 gubernatorial election campaigns

Abstract

Modern politics is no stranger to the use of celebrities as spokespeople, endorsers and supports of causes, candidates and campaigns, especially during electioneering. Available evidence suggests that during the 2014 governorship election in Osun State, APC and former governor Rauf Aregbesola employed celebrities to endorse his candidacy. However, it is not certain what role those celebrities that endorsed him played to get him reelected for a second term. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to investigate the role of celebrity endorsement as a political marketing strategy in Rauf Aregbesola’s 2014 Gubernatorial Election Campaigns in Osun State. Three theories were used to provide the framework for the study, namely: source credibility, source attractiveness, and meaning transfer. Quantitative design was adopted while descriptive survey method was used for data collection in Osogbo Local Government. The sample size used was 400. The instrument of data gathering was questionnaire. The questionnaire was self-administered in four selected wards of the local government. The study found that Governor Rauf Aregbesola greatly used celebrity endorsement as a political marketing strategy during his campaign for a second term in office in 2014 and people positively perceived the strategy as adopted by Governor Aregbesola. Apart from the celebrity endorsers, Governor Aregbesola’s performance in his first term was the other factor that influenced the electorate to vote for him. The study concluded that celebrity endorsement and his first-term performance influenced majority of the electorate to vote for Governor Aregbesola during the 2014 election in Osun State. As a result, it was recommended that politicians who want to mobilise people during election should use celebrity endorsement as a strategy during campaigns.