Who wants to be a star? Apparently we all do as we clamour to buy celebrity-endorsed products. Helene Hofmanreports on the celebrities who endorse and why a product has to have the star quality.
Whether it's because Bill and Hillary Clinton claim the low-carb South Beach diet worked for them, or because actor Hugh Grant and television personality Oprah Winfrey say they never felt better since taking up Pilates, it seems most of us have bought into celebrity diet and fitness trends at some point in the past few years.
The interest in how the rich and famous stay slim, fit and healthy continues to grow. When Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, signed up as spokeswoman for Weight Watchers International in 1997, the company reported that demand for meetings increased by 50-100 per cent.
Supermodel Cindy Crawford's two exercise videos have sold over five million copies worldwide. And although yoga has been around for over 5,000 years, the number of practitioners has rocketed since pop stars Madonna and Sting became followers. Now there are 15-19 million people doing yoga in the US alone.
Joyce Gavin, who runs the Bodyform Pilates studio in Dublin and is credited with bringing Pilates to Ireland in 1994, says the recent success of Pilates is also down to celebrity endorsement.
"We were doing it [ Pilates] and then Madonna and Liz Hurley started doing it, and that brought it into the mainstream.
"Ten years ago you would find Pilates studios in basements, now they're everywhere and have their own shop fronts," says Gavin.
"The celebrities have created huge market awareness and make people come looking for us. It's a 21st century obsession; whatever they do we think 'if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for us'.
"When an article in a newspaper said that Liz Hurley was doing pre-natal Pilates and featured a picture of her, our phones were hopping off the hook," she says.
"The problem is everyone looks for quick fix and the truth is there isn't one. In the end it's simple - less in the mouth and more with the body - there's no shortcut," she says.
Gavin has recently introduced vibration training to her studio.
Celebrities such as singer Natalie Imbruglia, supermodel Claudia Schiffer, several Premiership footballers and presenter Jonathan Ross are all said to be fans, as manufacturers of the machine claim you get the same benefits of an hour-long gym workout in just 15 minutes.
Vibration training, which involves doing a series of positions on a vibrating platform, is said to increase muscle tone, improve flexibility, increase blood circulation and improve balance and co-ordination.
"We've just read that Oprah has bought her own machine and is doing it. So, we're hoping people are reading that too," she says.
Power Plate, which manufactures vibration plate training machines, has recently begun trading in Ireland and acknowledges that the praise from celebrities has boosted interest. At the end of June, the company opened its first dedicated vibration plate training studio, Bodysmart, in Dublin.
"Power Plate technology has been around for over 40 years. It was initially used to train cosmonauts in Russia.
"However, it's really in the last few years that it has taken off and yes, the fact that Madonna, Clint Eastwood and Giorgio Armani all use the Power Plate has helped," says a spokeswoman for Power Plate Ireland.
"They love it - Kylie Minogue and June Sarpong use it and Colin Montgomerie uses it for training for competitions. The benefits of Power Plate have all been scientifically proven but it [the celebrity interest] has helped bring the product into consumer space and helped it gain momentum," she says.
However, although celebrities can help boost sales of a product initially, industry experts note that unless the product works, its staying power is limited.
The Atkins diet is considered to be one of the most popular diets of all time. It was developed by Dr Robert Atkins in the US in the 1960s who used it to tackle his own weight problems. By 2003 interest in the diet reached an all-time high with actresses Renee Zellwegger and Calista Flockhart, and singer Geri Halliwell among its followers.
Critics claimed that any weight lost as part of the diet was temporary and warned that the high-protein, low-carb meals would cause fatigue and mood-swings. In 2005, the company behind the diet, Atkins Nutritional Inc, filed for bankruptcy after the popularity of the diet waned.
Although its success didn't last, the Atkins phenomenon showed how quickly celebrity endorsement can arouse interest in a product. Two years ago, Victoria Beckham claimed that Chinese puerh tea was the secret to her weight-loss. The tea is said to boost metabolism as well as aid digestion and reduce blood cholesterol.
In May 2006 the private medical and aesthetic beauty clinic, Thérapie, in Dublin became one of the first outlets in Ireland to stock the tea. Now, just over a year later, it is available from most supermarkets and convenience stores.
"I had read about it [puerh tea] in a magazine and saw that it wasn't in Ireland," says Deirdre Naughton, manager of Thérapie, who at one time had a waiting list of 600 people for the tea.
"Sales are consistent but we used to sell much more. Now, everyone is doing it . . . Victoria Beckham definitely helped advertise the product more. People see that she's using it and are instantly interested."
Colm Carey, a consumer psychologist with the Research Centre, a marketing research company in Dublin, says there is no question that a successful celebrity endorsement is a guaranteed way to boost sales quickly.
"I recently heard celebrities described as being people we all look up to, whether they sing, dance, play football or act. If you take a nobody it's very difficult to build a brand. With a celebrity, your rate of climb is greater. It may not last as long as building a brand the hard way, but many of these things are just fads and so making a lot of money in five years and then nothing can be enough," says Carey.
However, Carey warns that in many cases celebrity endorsements are the result of a carefully planned business deal.
"It's too well orchestrated. These things come from nowhere and there is often a celebrity attached with merchandise focused on that celebrity. The idea is that when you go for a course or buy a product you feel attached to that celebrity.
"Then, as part of that there are spin-offs. Someone who already has a gym may see something like Pilates working and decide to get an instructor in to do classes," says Carey.
And as to why we buy into it?
"We're essentially optimistic," says Carey. "If it's the right product, the right celebrity and at the right price we're likely to aspire to that and give it a go. And if it doesn't work we're likely to blame ourselves.
It's a bit like religion - when it works we attribute it to a higher being. When it goes wrong it's our fault."