Celebrity appeal effectiveness in donating to the cause: Popular Culture vs. Religious Celebrities

In times of crises and subsiding government support, choosing the most effective advertising message appeal in motivating donation behavior is fundamental to charity success. This study investigates the relative effectiveness of popular culture celebrities (PCC) and religious celebrities (RC) as two message appeals in motivating donation intentions intended for a ‘child suffering’ donation campaign among Kuwaiti donors. The two message appeals were presented in alternated order to a sample of 385 potential donors and the data was used to test the conceptual model using MANOVA, CFA and Structural Equation Modeling. The results showed that the type of emotions evoked (negative and positive), and emotional intensity (strong/weak) differed between the two ad appeals. Intensely evoked emotion was positively associated with ad favorability, and the latter was also found to be an antecedent of donation intentions. Conclusions and practical implications are presented and discussed.