Post 3: Chapter 6 P211 Question 7

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Katy Perry endorses popchips, a puffed potato chip snack that does not include any unnatural ingredients, preservatives or trans-fat. Perry's celebrity status elevates the popularity of the snack food, creating a more likable and familiar face to resonate with the popchips brand. Celebrities often acquire "stopping power" which is when the celebrity who endorses a specific product or service influences a consumer's purchase behavior. Celebrities may also affect the consumer by allowing a longer reaction time to the advertisement. For example, Perry is well-liked by a wide demographic of consumers, ranging from young adolescent girls to adults. This demographic segment also matches up with the product, popchips, because they are a snack that targets everyone, especially a market of consumers who are consciously aware of their healthy eating habits. 

McCracken's meaning transfer model starts with the potential issue of the celebrity overshadowing the product (Belch 187). popchips chose an effective celebrity to represent the product without any problems of overshadowing. Despite the sexist undertones of the advertisement, which will be explained below, Perry elevates the brand by maintaining her self-image as a positive influence for her audience. That message transfers to the brand as well, signaling that it has a good reputation.

Overexposure is not a problem for Katy Perry and her agreement to endorse popchips. She has mainly promoted popchips in a series of different ads, as well as her own perfume line, and an endorsement for Proactiv acne treatment. Because Perry appears in a variety of popchips ads, her face is well-known to the brand.

As discussed above, popchips' target audience is any consumer who eats snack foods. popchips specializes their brand by focusing on consumers who care about what they eat. Perry's image is receptive to popchips because of her own target audience: adolescents, teenagers, and adults who like pop music. 

The return on investment will be positive for consumers who relate popchips to "healthy" snack foods. Perry's image projects that meaning onto the popchips brand by her current popular status in the media and music sectors of the world. As Perry's image continues to emerge, her popularity will remain effective in sending the right messages about the popchips brand.

Regarding the prevalence of sexism in today's advertising and promotional world, popchips and Katy Perry create the illusion of "real" being good for the consumer. popchips regards this theme in terms of the natural ingredients involved in making the product, unlike a competitor chip. In the first ad, Perry is dressed in workout clothes and the script under reads: "i curl popchips right to my lips. good thing they don't go straight to my hips." 

In the second ad, two bags of popchips are placed in front of Perry's breasts, symbolizing (and assuming) that her body is also natural. This creates issues about plastic surgery, whether or not it was medical or cosmetic, and the normative roles that women are placed in media. 

While some critics believe that the message popchips and Perry are conveying may be about body-positivity or maintaining a healthy figure, it reinforces the fact that when women celebrities endorse a product, their bodies are somehow incorporated into the ad. This is unnecessary and places more emphasis on where the physical bags of popchips are in the ad instead of what the ad is trying to teach consumers.