ABSTRACT
Endorsements are one of the most important promotional activities used in sport. They have a special role in marketing products. Sport celebrities not only make commercials for various sport products, but global brands also use them to market their non-sport-related products to the world.
Despite the importance of endorsements in sport marketing, how endorsements are used depends upon the culture of a target country. The manner in which cultures of the world differ can limit the way in which famous sport stars appear in advertisements and even limit the effects of marketing activities. The different attitudes of people in different cultures towards using human beings as advertising phenomena is an important factor to consider when choosing promotional strategies. On the other hand, the lifestyle of sport stars as “brands” themselves, or as endorsers of brands, is an important consideration when faced with such sociological attitudes. Sport stars’ endorsement contracts can limit their lifestyle so that their behaviour differs from that of other people in many aspects. Their contracts can limit their behaviour and this is why some people consider endorsements to be “sports slavery”. The characteristics of sport stars are another important factor that makes them effective endorsers. Although the favourite characteristics for “normal” celebrities can differ in different cultures, it seems that sport creates a set of favourite characteristics for its stars that transcend culture so that they can endorse products in any part of the world successfully.
