Britons prefer websites to celebs

Sainsbury, Morrisons and Marks and Spencer must be kicking themselves - a new survey has revealed that Brits are sick of celebrities in adverts.

Especially during these credit-crunched times, 37 per cent of people polled by G2 Data Dynamics said that money spent on celebrities would be better invested in other forms of marketing.

Indeed, consumers generally reported that they much preferred to find out about brands via websites and email marketing - rather than Take That and Jamie Oliver.

The company’s managing director Kevin Slatter said that consumers feel like “stakeholders” in creating celebrities, because of reality television.

He added: “Also interesting is that consumers are becoming increasingly brand aware online. This mimics the shift in advertising revenue from TV to online and will be interesting to see how TV fights back.”

One person who thinks the day of the celebrity is over is Steve Henry, who wrote an article about the phenomenon on the Guardian’s Organ Grinder blog.

He claimed that Tesco has “won the PR war by apparently ditching the overpaid celebs”.