Testimonial
Having a respected or admired person endorse an idea, product, or candidate, so that the audience's regard for the person stands in for a judgment of the thing endorsed.
Testimonial is transfer with a name attached. The audience trusts the endorser, and the trust is carried to the claim, regardless of whether the endorser knows anything about it. A film star recommending a cigarette has no more information about tar than the viewer does; the endorsement works because of who is speaking, not what is known.
The device has two variants. In the first, the endorser is famous but irrelevant, and the transfer is of affection. In the second, the endorser is credentialed but the credential is in the wrong field, or the endorsement was bought, and the transfer is of authority. Exploits Halo Effect and Authority Bias.
Historical examples
The Institute for Propaganda Analysis pointed to the way political campaigns of the period gathered endorsements from film stars and sports figures whose knowledge of the platform was beside the point; the aim was to transfer public affection for the endorser to the candidate.
Institute for Propaganda Analysis. "How to Detect Propaganda." Propaganda Analysis 1, no. 2 (November 1937); Lee and Lee, The Fine Art of Propaganda (1939), on the "testimonial" device.
In advertising and commerce
R. J. Reynolds ran "More Doctors Smoke Camels Than Any Other Cigarette" from 1946, citing a survey the company's own agency had conducted at medical conventions where Camels had been handed out free. The campaign borrowed the standing of physicians for a product that physicians were, within a decade, publicly warning against.
Brandt, Allan M. The Cigarette Century. New York: Basic Books, 2007; Gardner, Martha N., and Allan M. Brandt. "'The Doctors' Choice Is America's Choice.'" American Journal of Public Health 96, no. 2 (2006): 222–232. Source
Lucky Strike's "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet" campaign (from 1928) paired the slogan with endorsements from actresses and opera singers who praised the cigarette's effect on their throats and figures. The endorsers' fame, not any medical fact, carried the claim.
Brandt, Allan M. The Cigarette Century. New York: Basic Books, 2007.
Pick a celebrity endorsement you have seen this week. What would the endorser need to know for the endorsement to be worth anything, and do they know it?
In the wild
Short examples of the technique at work, each with what to notice. The same examples are questions in the quiz, where the answer is not given away.
"As an Olympic swimmer, I know what my body needs. That's why I choose Radiant Vitamins."
What to notice. A named, admired person endorses a product in a field where athletic fame is not expertise.
A bestselling novelist appears in a bank's advertisement saying, "I trust them with everything."
What to notice. The novelist's fame is lent to the bank. The statement is about trust, not about the bank's terms.
"Dr. Ellis, a physicist, says this diet is the only one grounded in real science."
What to notice. A credential in the wrong field. The endorsement borrows scientific standing for a claim outside physics.
Sources
- Institute for Propaganda Analysis. "How to Detect Propaganda." Propaganda Analysis 1, no. 2 (November 1937).
- Brandt, Allan M. The Cigarette Century. New York: Basic Books, 2007. ISBN 978-0465070473
- Gardner, Martha N., and Allan M. Brandt. "'The Doctors' Choice Is America's Choice': The Physician in US Cigarette Advertisements, 1930–1953." American Journal of Public Health 96, no. 2 (2006): 222–232. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2005.066654
- Pratkanis, Anthony, and Elliot Aronson. Age of Propaganda. Rev. ed. New York: W. H. Freeman, 2001. ISBN 978-0805074031