The Use, Definition of Icon in the Contemporary Egyptian Advertisement and its relation to Celebrities

The use of movie stars has become a common promotional style in the commercial
advertisement which is regularly used by businesses. Foreign corporates and especially major
American corporates strive to maintain their market share or increase it, thoroughly, they
usually compete in hiring movie celebrities or sports athletes in their commercials. They
would pay millions of dollars to those celebrities for saying a mere sentence in a commercial.
It goes the same in Egypt and the Arab World, many movie stars are hired to advertise many
products that require promotions. That has increasingly encouraged many promoters to hire
celebrities for promotional use, consequently led to a spread of that pattern on small screen
and across many other mass communications.
The trademark has been no longer attached to its merchandise yet the majority of celebrities
have become commercially iconic figures who are used to promote either products or their
own lifestyles. Not only those celebrities' names would refer to their artwork or their
personalities but also refer to consumer products such as clothes, accessories, shoes,
perfumes, cafes…etc.