This article studies how political parties in India are using celebrity endorsers to reach out to the voters. The primary focus of this study is to understand the rationale behind using celebrities in political campaigns. The results of the case study have been analyzed vis-á-vis the existing literature on celebrity endorsement in marketing management in order to gain insights into the use of celebrities as effective marketing `tools'.

Political parties use celebrities for campaigning, give press releases in newspapers when a celebrity endorses their party and also appear with the endorser during campaigning in order to attract voters. Celebrity political endorsement is seen to be embedded within an overall political campaign that defines the aims and the general content of the marketing activities, i.e., winning a political election by using a trust-based positioning strategy. Within this frame, a celebrity political endorsement strategy is chosen and celebrity endorsement activities are integrated within the campaigning strategies. This strategy is adopted for two main reasons; firstly, celebrities acquire an image over a period of time. This could be an image of expertise, credibility or trustworthiness. Political parties hope that the image of the celebrities would get `transferred' onto the political party image and, thus, influence the voters. Secondly, the more important fact is that celebrities have a huge fan following and have attributes like attractiveness and likeability which can pull huge crowds. Political parties hope to convert these crowds into a voter base.

However, the celebrity political endorsement activity does not affect the voter directly, rather it does so within a general intervening political context, like, political campaigning activities and media reports concerning an election. The characteristics that are transferred from the celebrity to the political parties can help the political parties in many ways: they can draw public attention and involvement, they can increase and reinforce trust and credibility in the political candidate, etc. This is mediated by the actual effectiveness of the celebrity political endorsement. Direct or indirect behavioral consequence as part of the interaction between celebrity endorsements, other campaign activities and the general political context characterize the consequences of the celebrity political endorsement activity. The question that needs to be answered is: Does endorsement of political parties by celebrities help the candidates garner more votes or is it just limited to gathering of crowds? Therefore, the purpose of this article is to gain insights into the use of celebrities as part of the communication strategies of a modern political electioneering campaign in order to positively influence the attitudes or behavior of voters, donors or party volunteers. Through an exploratory analysis, the case study tries to unveil the rationale of using celebrities in political campaigns.

Advertising Express Magazine, Celebrity Political Endorsements, Political Campaigns, Marketing Management, Campaigning Strategies, Political Parties, Communication Strategies, Political Electioneering Campaign, Marketing Campaigns, Communication Vehicles, Political System.