Liability of Celebrities That Engage in Commercial Advertising Under Ethiopian Laws: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

In today's consumer world, it is what said is that sells. Advertisement is an age-old practice and is currently part and parcel of commercial marketing strategy. It is used by producers to drive consumer behavior to its commercial offering and increase consumption of its product. Companies and marketers today place a greater emphasis on branding and marketing than on real products and use a variety of strategies to persuade consumers to purchase their goods and services. When these advertisements are false or intend to deceive consumers, they impair the economic behavior of the consumers and cause injury to their rights to exercise informed choice. Celebrities are increasingly being used to create a larger-than-life image and pique the interest of consumers. They play the role of magnets, which attracts consumers and makes them buy the product and the product has become alike with the face value of the celebrity endorsing it. Currently, in Ethiopia, the popularity of such celebrities is being used to entice consumers into buying products or availing of services and their advertisements are often deceptive, as they are flamboyant exaggerations. As a result, the study investigated the liabilities of celebrities that participate in commercial advertising under the laws of Ethiopia by using doctrinal and non-doctrinal research methods and found that no comprehensive legal and institutional approach establishes the liabilities for the false and misleading endorsement of celebrities. Thus, the study recommends developing comprehensive legal and institutional frameworks that regulate and establish the obligations and liabilities of advertising celebrities including the mechanisms that introduce and attribute the liabilities of celebrities to compromise celebrities' advertising rights and consumer rights to be informed. And also, it has to provide the rights of the consumer to bring allegations against celebrities in case of sustained damage by goods and services acquired because of misleading endorsement, and the investigation and prosecution powers of the concerned institution have to extend to advertising celebrities in case of their misleading endorsement.