This study examines consumer–celebrity attachment within multiple endorsement situations. A 2 × 2 factorial design manipulates attachment strength to the celebrity and endorsement situation while controlling for celebrity attractiveness, familiarity and match-up. Results show strong attachment to a celebrity encourages positive attitude towards the advertisement and brand regardless of the number of endorsements. A significant interaction effect is found for purchase intention, suggesting that both attachment and the number of endorsements influence likelihood of purchase. When consumers are more attached to a celebrity and view that celebrity endorsing multiple brands, this negatively impacts their purchase intention. Yet, when consumers have a weak attachment, their purchase intention is increased with multiple endorsements.

Celebrity brand authenticity is introduced as a construct that represents consumer perceptions of celebrities being "true to oneself" in their behaviors and interactions with consumers. A scale is developed through two purification stages and the scale's predictive validity is assessed. First, the meaning of celebrity brand authenticity to consumers is explored. Second, the Authenticity Inventory from the psychology literature is adapted to develop a scale for consumer perceptions of celebrity brand authenticity. Celebrity brands are perceived as true to self when they appear genuine in their relationships with consumers and behave in accordance with their perceived held values. Evidence of the convergent and discriminant validity of the celebrity brand authenticity scale is provided, which confirms celebrity brand authenticity as distinct from celebrity attachment, despite containing relational items. Finally, the predictive power of celebrity brand authenticity is confirmed through positively influencing consumer intentions to purchase an endorsed brand. Brand managers can use celebrity brand authenticity to position or develop celebrity brands, as well as in the selection of celebrity endorsers.

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