Celebrity Advertisement and Young Voters’ Choice of Political Candidates in Ghana: Looking Through the Lens of Tertiary Students

Abstract

The drive to win elections by political candidates has resulted in the employment of marketing tools such as celebrity advertising. Celebrities have been engaged in endorsing various political candidates. The current study sought to investigate the influence of celebrity advertisement on young voters’ choice of political candidates in Ghana. The study employed the quantitative technique through regression statistics to establish the influence. A sample of about 400 students (respondents) was drawn for the study. The results showed that there was weak positive but significant influence of celebrity advertisement on young voters’ choice of political candidates. This indicates that political parties that engage celebrities in advertising for their candidates and brands stand the chance of winning over young voters to vote for their candidates. It is recommended that celebrity advertising should be designed in such a way that it could improve the capacity of creating long lasting impact in the minds of young voters, influencing young voters to better recognize political candidates at voting points as well as influencing recalling of political candidates during national elections. Policies makers should put measures in place to regulate the contents and type of adverts that can be run by celebrities for political parties since most of these adverts are directed to and consumed by young voters.