The impact of endorser ethnicity and portrayal on Chinese women’s attitude toward luxury advertising

This study aims to examine the impact of endorser ethnicity and portrayal on consumers’ attitude toward luxury ad and brand. In addition, the moderating role of individual’s appearance self-esteem is examined. In the ads of luxury brands in China, it is common to have two types of endorser ethnicity (i.e., international vs. local) and two types of endorser portrayal (i.e., sexy vs. smart). Endorser ethnicity in an ad may influence consumers’ self-referencing behavior which refers to an individual’s tendency to encode communication information differently depending on the level on which the self is implicated in the information (Rogers et al., 1997). Asian consumers’ self-reference level is found to be higher when they are exposed to ads featuring an Asian model than a Western model (Martin et al., 2004). In other words, if an international luxury brand adopts a localization advertising strategy in China by using a Chinese endo