Does Sports Athletes Credibility Affects Attitude toward Advertisement among Consumers in Penang, Malaysia: A Structured Abstract

Abstract

Advertisement endorsed by celebrity such as actor, singer or sport athletes have been adopted as an advertising strategy by many companies. This is due to an endorser credibility play an important role in influencing consumers’ attitude toward advertisement and their purchase behaviour. Previous empirical research found that there is a significant relationship between source credibility (i.e. expertise, attractiveness and liking) and attitude towards advertisement (Clow, James and Stanley, 2008). Source credibility refers to credibility of the endorser, spokesperson or individual in an advertisement (Clow et al. 2008). In addition, a study by Yan, Ogle and Hyllegard (2010) found that source credibility has a direct effect upon attitude toward advertisement among generation Y consumer. Moreover, Yoon, Kim and Kim (1998) conducted a study on the effect of source credibility on attitudes and behavioural intentions. The study is aimed to examine the effect of source credibility namely expertise, trustworthiness and attractiveness on attitude and behavioural intention to both Americans and Koreans. The result shows that perceived attractiveness is more significant than expertise and trustworthiness in term of influence attitude toward advertisement (Yoon et al. 1998)