Brands frequently turn to celebrities and well-known personalities to endorse their products and services. It is a tried and tested strategy that helps link the celebrity personality to the brand. If the consumer trusts the celebrity and the celebrity trusts the brand, it is only logical to make the next link of connecting the consumer to the brand.

Of course, celebrity reputations can change like the weather. When you are managing a brand reputation, you certainly don’t want a celebrity endorser’s tempest to rip through and rain on your brand.

Maturity Makes Celebrities More Effective Brand Endorsers

So who does America trust? Based on a recent Ipsos poll of over 2,000 U.S. adults, Betty White stands out as America’s favorite and most trusted personality. The former Golden Girl is not just Hot in Cleveland; she’s hot all across America, as her endorsement of a company would be most likely to drive business.

Betty White gets the highest favorability rating among 100 well-known personalities with 86% of those surveyed expressing a favorable opinion of her (vs. only 3% an unfavorable one). The next most popular celebrities include Denzel Washington (rated favorably by 85%) and Sandra Bullock (84%). Also in the top 10 are: Clint Eastwood (83%), Tom Hanks (81%), Harrison Ford (80%), Kate Middleton – now the Duchess of Cambridge – (79%), Morgan Freeman (also 79%), Will Smith (77%), and Johnny Depp (76%).

Most of the 100 personalities rated in the survey come from the world of entertainment, news and sports. Elected officials were deliberately excluded from the list.

Beware the Scandalous!

At the other end of the spectrum, only two of the 100 celebrities asked about were viewed unfavorably by an outright majority of respondents: Paris Hilton (with 60% expressing an unfavorable opinion of her vs. only 12% a favorable one) and Charlie Sheen (52% vs. 22%). The next most unpopular personalities among those rated are: Britney Spears and Kanye West (each of whom is viewed unfavorably by 45%), Arnold Schwarzenegger (44%), Tiger Woods (42%), Kim Kardashian (38%), Mel Gibson (33%), Donald Trump (31%), and LeBron James (29%).

Several of these 10 personalities – Tiger Woods, Charlie Sheen, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears – are more widely disliked by women than they are by men. The others show relatively comparable proportions of male and female detractors.

Differentiated Demographic Appeal

Among the 100 personalities rated, some show a stronger appeal to one gender or age group.

• Those who are notably more popular among women than among men include: Antonio Banderas (showing a 27-point gap in favorability between women and men), Kate Winslet, Anderson Cooper, Jake Gyllenhall, Oprah Winfrey, Katie Couric, Reese Witherspoon, Ellen DeGeneres and Mariah Carey.
• Many of those who are particularly more popular among men than among women are athletes, including Rafael Nadal (with a gap of 26 points), Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant and Tiger Woods. Non-athletes viewed more favorably by males than by females include Jay Z, Mel Gibson and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• Jay Z is also far more popular among younger Americans than he is among their elders (showing a gap of 39 points between those under 35 compared to those 55 and older). To a lesser extent, this is also the case for Eminem, Sean Diddy Combs, Heidi Klum, Natalie Portman, Britney Spears, and Jessica Simpson, among others.
• In reverse, Rachael Ray, Bill Gates, Paul McCartney, Kate Middleton, Roger Federer, and Barbara Walters are far more popular among those aged 55 and older than they are among younger Americans.

Most Trusted Personalities

Not only is Betty White the most popular personality, but she also ranks as the most trusted one: More than two-thirds of those asked (69%) rated her above average when it comes to being someone they trust while 65% rated Tom Hanks above average, 60% for Sandra Bullock, 59% for Morgan Freeman, 58% for Kate Middleton and 57% for both Oprah Winfrey and Taylor Swift. Another nine personalities received “above average” ratings from a full majority of respondents: Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts, Bill Gates, Peyton Manning, Michelle Obama, and Steven Spielberg.

Older Celebrities Most Able to Transfer Their Own Trust Capital to the Brands They Endorse

Bill Gates and Tom Hanks top the list of personalities whose endorsement would be most effective in making Americans place more trust in a company. In a recent Ipsos poll of over 2,000 U.S. adults aged 18 and older, majorities of those asked indicated that they would trust a company a little more or a lot more if it were endorsed by Bill Gates (53%) and Tom Hanks (50%). Near majorities said so of, in order, Denzel Washington, Clint Eastwood and Sandra Bullock (49% for all three), Betty White (48%), Morgan Freeman (47%), and Oprah Winfrey (46%). Tied for 10th place are Julia Roberts, Steven Spielberg and Robert DeNiro (all 44%).

The average age of these 12 personalities is 62 and none of them is under 40, suggesting that maturity plays a large role in driving confidence.

No One Drives Purchase Interest in a Brand like Betty White

When it comes to driving purchases of a company’s products or services, Betty White comes out on top as well: 44% of those asked said they would be a little or a lot more likely to do business with a company, if it were endorsed by her. The Ipsos poll’s findings are consistent with those of an Ipsos ASI poll, which ranked an ad featuring Betty White as the most entertaining, most unique, best liked and most talked about Super Bowl ad of 2010.

The most influential personalities when it comes to stimulating purchases of a company’s products or services are largely the same as those who are most trusted and whose endorsement would most increase trust in brands: Betty White is followed, in order, by: Bill Gates, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Oprah Winfrey and Denzel Washington, and Morgan Freeman, Taylor Swift, and Kate Middleton.

Differences by age emerge for the top ten celebrities, with half (52%) of those aged 55 and over and 47% of those aged 35-54 indicating that they would be more likely to do business with the company were it endorsed by Betty White, compared to only 28% of those aged 18-34. Almost six in ten (57%) of those 55 and over indicated that they were more likely to do business with a company if it were endorsed by Bill Gates, considerably more than those aged 35-54 (34%) or those aged 18-34 (35%). A similar pattern emerged when those polled were asked about Morgan Freeman, with over half (53%) of those 55 and over saying that they would be more likely to do business with a company if he were to endorse it, compared to almost a third (32%) of those aged 35-54 and just 28% of those aged 18-34.

Almost half of the women polled (46%) indicated that they were more likely to do business with a company if it were endorsed by Oprah Winfrey, compared to only 30% of men.

America’s Least Trusted Celebrities

The list of the 10 least trusted celebrities is nearly identical to that of the 10 most unpopular ones. Two thirds of those asked (67%) rate Paris Hilton below average in terms of being someone they trust – roughly the same proportion who rate Betty White above average. Charlie Sheen is rated below average by 65%, followed by Britney Spears (60%), Tiger Woods (57%), Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kanye West (both 55%), Kim Kardashian (47%), Mel Gibson (45%), Donald Trump (44%) and Kobe Bryant (40%).

Charlie Sheen and Paris Hilton are the celebrities whose endorsement could be the most damaging to the brands they would endorse. Majorities of those asked indicated that they would trust a company less if it were endorsed by Charlie Sheen (54%) or by Paris Hilton (53%). Relatively large proportions also said so of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Britney Spears (42% each), Tiger Woods (40%) and Mel Gibson (34%).

Sheen is also the only celebrity about whom a majority of those asked (51%) said they would be a little or a lot less likely to do business with a company, if it were endorsed by him. The other celebrities whose endorsement could be most dissuasive about purchasing a company’s products or services are, again, Paris Hilton (46%), Arnold Schwarzenegger, Britney Spears and Tiger Woods (38% for all three), and Mel Gibson (31%).

However, certain celebrities with a poor image among the U.S. public at large may actually have a positive impact among younger people on the brands they endorse. For example, while only 2% of those aged 55 and older and 10% of those aged 35-54 say they would be more likely to do business with a company endorsed by Kim Kardashian, 29% of those under the age of 35 say they would. Similar gaps across age groups are seen for Jay Z, Eminem and Sean Diddy Combs, among others.


These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted July 7-11, 2011. For the survey, a national sample of 2,012 adults aged 18 and older from Ipsos’ U.S. online panel were interviewed online. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics and ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the U.S. adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. A survey with an unweighted probability sample of 2,012 and a 100% response rate would have an estimated margin of error of +/- 2.2 percentage points 19 times out of 20 of what the results would have been had the entire adult population aged 18 and older in the United States had been polled. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.