Political campaigns in South Africa: Does celebrity endorsement influence the intention to vote?

• Published date: 01 May 2021
• Author: Nkosivile Welcome Madinga,Eugine Tafadzwa Maziriri,Lebogang Thato Mototo,Tinashe Chuchu
• Date: 01 May 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2225

ACADEMIC PAPER

Political campaigns in South Africa: Does celebrity

endorsement influence the intention to vote?

Nkosivile Welcome Madinga

1

| Eugine Tafadzwa Maziriri

2

|

Lebogang Thato Mototo

1

| Tinashe Chuchu

3

1

School of Management Studies, University of

Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

2

Department of Business Management,

University of Free State, Bloemfontein, South

Africa

3

Department of Marketing, University of

Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

Correspondence

Nkosivile Welcome Madinga, Section of

Marketing, School of Management Studies,

University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South

Africa.

Email: nkosivile.madinga@uct.ac.za

Funding information

University of Cape Town's Research

Committee (URC)

From presidential campaigns to social awareness campaigns, celebrities have gradu-

ally become central fixtures in modern politics. They tend to be information platforms

for candidates and parties they either clearly support or officially endorse. South Afri-

can political parties raised eyebrows when they rallied the country's popular celebri-

ties to publicly endorse them. Political parties spend a significant amount of money

on celebrity endorsements as it is believed that celebrities can leverage “secondary

brand associations”. This leads to the question: does the increased use of celebrity

endorsements in political campaigns influence the intention to vote? The aim of this

study is to investigate the influence of celebrity political endorsement on intentions

to vote. Employing a quantitative research design, 227 respondents were surveyed

using a structured questionnaire. The findings show that endorser credibility has a

positive significant relationship with political party credibility and voters' intentions.

The relationship between political party credibility and voters' intentions is also posi-

tive and significant. This study provides managerial implications, limitations and

future research.

1|INTRODUCTION

South Africa has a large number of political parties, both national and

provincial. According to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC)

of South Africa, 48 political parties were on the ballot paper

contesting the 2019 elections—an increase of 39.6% from the previ-

ous national elections, held in 2014. This increase has led to a degen-

eration in the strength of party association, and more electorates than

ever before are exposed to various stimuli in the electoral arena

(Smith & French, 2008). Therefore, the campaigning system in South

Africa is still a political party-oriented event, where political parties

rely heavily on party ground forces, advertising and celebrities to pro-

mote their parties.

From presidential campaigns to social awareness campaigns,

celebrities have gradually become central fixtures in many modern

political and social platforms (Nisbett & DeWalt, 2016). Movie stars,

musicians, personalities and other influential figures promote their

positions on political matters and even partake in political activities

(Becker, 2013). Furthermore, celebrities campaign on behalf of

political parties, political candidates, social policies and social engage-

ment. They have been known to play a significant role in politics

(Garthwaite & Moore 2013; Pease & Brewer, 2008; Sanders, 2016)

and they tend to be information platforms for candidates and parties

whom they either clearly support or officially endorse (Popkin, 1991;

Sanders, 2016). “Taking advantage of their fame, celebrities can make

public performances on behalf of the candidates, they can campaign

alongside the candidates, they can attend public conferences to voice

their support, and more recently they can tweet out their endorse-

ment to their millions of followers”(Wang & Luo, 2017, p. 1).

Although celebrity endorseme nt is not a new phenomenon in

the product and brand promotion aren a, it is relatively new in the

political space. According to Nisbett and DeWalt (2016), pol itical

celebrity endorsement is mainly used to target young voters.

Brockington and Henson (2015) ar gue that engaging in politics might

be beneficial for celebrity rep utation management. As such, some

celebrity public relations pr actitioners encourage politi cal endorse-

ments (Markham, 2015). However, Syvester Chauke, a brand strate-

gist and the founder of DNA brand architects, said “endorsing a

Received: 20 November 2019 Accepted: 11 June 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2225

J Public Affairs. 2021;21:e2225. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 1of11

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2225