Briana Anderson - Cornell University

or negative reputation. Second, decision-makers should not rely on the ‘what is
beautiful is good’ conception. This thesis indicates that in a message with social
connotations, people are not merely looking for a pretty face. In fact, this thesis
suggests that those who are personally involved in a serious issue such as breast
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cancer will view a pretty face negatively (and this assumes that the person viewing the
ad will not have any preexisting attitudes toward the person involved).
Additionally, this thesis supports the idea that decision-makers should consider
the type of company they are when choosing an endorser. In this thesis, the attractive
endorser received significantly higher ratings for the cosmetics company (beauty-
related) than the pharmaceutical company (though it is important to note that the
unattractive endorser got higher ratings for both company types).
What this thesis should clearly communicate to PR and marketing
professionals making CSR decisions is that marketing research is a necessary
component to their choosing of endorsers. These professionals need to consider (and
discover!) what is important to their targeted audience, whether an internal or external
endorser is more credible and should not follow on the heals of advertising where a
pretty face will automatically equal greater credibility. Choosing a credible endorser
is certainly important as the connection between endorser and organizational
credibility is supported by this study (as well as intuition).