Deeper Luxury Report - WWF UK

Coherent Celebrity Endorsement
Celebrity endorsement is an important driver of value
for most luxury brands. Furthermore, the brands that
these celebrities choose to endorse are seen as a
reflection of their personal values. Endorsing brands
with poor social and environmental performance can
damage the reputation of these celebrities as well as
undermining the good causes that they support.
WWF-UK calls on celebrities to seek more coherence
between the causes that celebrities support personally,
and the brands that they endorse on a commercial
basis. To help them to make the right endorsement
choices, we have prepared a “Star Charter”, comprising
the following six principles:
1. To recognise their potential to influence
consumer behaviour.
2. To encourage both consumers and companies to
be aware of the social and environmental aspects
of their activities.
3. To consider the social and environmental
performance of companies before endorsing them.
4. To obtain independent expert advice on that
performance before endorsing companies.
5. To address any public concerns over the social and
environmental performance of the brands that they
currently endorse.
6. To tell professional colleagues about their
commitment to the Star Charter.
Conclusion
Luxury companies must do more to justify their value
in an increasingly resource-constrained and unequal
world. Despite strong commercial drivers for greater
sustainability, luxury brands have been slow to
recognise their responsibilities and opportunities.
We call upon the luxury industry to bring to life a new
definition of luxury, with deeper values expressed
through social and environmental excellence. Their
performance and progress on environmental, social
and governance issues should be comprehensively
measured and reported.