{"id":7051741,"date":"2026-08-30T10:44:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T10:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/entertainment\/art\/why-are-so-many-brands-ditching-celebrities-for-ordinary-people\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T10:44:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T10:44:19","slug":"why-are-so-many-brands-ditching-celebrities-for-ordinary-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7051741","title":{"rendered":"Why are so many brands ditching celebrities for ordinary people?"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The other day, I was chatting with some mates, and we got onto the subject of celebrities in ads. Our references, though, were a bit long in the tooth. George Clooney, who, it turns out, has been doing Nespresso for 20 years now. Kevin Bacon’s been with EE for 14 years, and Jennifer Aniston with Emirates for 11. Clearly, I thought, me and my pals need to update ourselves with what’s going on culturally right now.<\/p>\n

So who are the modern celebrities making waves in ads now? Well, on closer inspection, it feels like things aren’t what they used to be.<\/p>\n

Yes, Rylan is doing sterling work for Iceland. The same can be said for Danny Dyer and Paddy Power, or Myleene Klass and Skechers. But on the whole, there seems to be a trend to centre things around ordinary people instead.<\/p>\n

Fans and workers<\/h2>\n

One good example is Spotify’s Fan Life<\/a>, which has been rolling out globally this summer. The music streamer’s campaign centres on people like Kye O’Hagan, a Glaswegian fan of the band Geese, shown in a crocheted goose beanie, alongside fans of A$AP Rocky, Rosal\u00eda, and Zara Larsson. The point of the campaign is basically that fandom itself is as worthy of celebrating as the artists.<\/p>\n

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\"Kye
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Kye O\u2019Hagan, a Geese superfan from Glasgow<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Similarly, WE OUTSIDE, Pepsi’s Knicks campaign in the US, is built around fans rather than players or celebrities. It neatly follows PepsiCo’s CMO admitting back in 2023 that “you cannot build brands the way we used to”. His point was that traditional mass-media advertising is no longer enough in today’s fragmented cultural landscape.<\/p>\n

It’s not just fans who appear in these ads either. The trend of companies putting the “real people” working for them on screen also seems to be gathering steam. One recent example is Yorkshire Building Society’s campaign, Here for Every Stage, which launched a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n

It’s based, as so many ads are these days, on one person’s journey from childhood through adulthood and starting a family, capturing key moments along the way. Filmed on location at Yeadon Town Hall, Society colleagues appeared as extras in the audience scenes to deliver an authentic, human touch.<\/p>\n