• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.77-85
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• 2019

Purpose - The use of celebrity endorsers is a strategy long-since used by companies to improve the persuasive impact of their company's advertising. However, much like anyone else, celebrities are flawed human beings, and therefore often find themselves involved in scandals. Companies must consider the potential of scandals when using a celebrity endorser to represent their brand or product. This research focuses on the process consumers use to justify scandals involving celebrity endorsers. Specifically, this research divides the justification processes used by consumers to maintain support for celebrities involved in a scandal into moral decoupling and moral rationalization and proposes antecedents and consequences for these processes. Methodology - To verify the hypotheses suggested by this study, an online survey was conducted, and data was analyzed using a structural equation model. Result - Results showed that consumer empathy for the celebrity endorser and external attribution of the scandal presented were positively related to moral decoupling and moral rationalization. In addition, moral rationalization was positively related to consumers' attitude towards the celebrity endorser, which also enhanced brand attitude. However, the relationship between moral decoupling and the consumer's attitude toward the celebrity endorser was not statistically significant. Conclusion - This research serves to expand the scope of available research on the persuasiveness of celebrity endorsers and provides practical guidelines for marketers.