What do ordinary people do for brand communication?

An analysis of French advertising campaigns

Abstract

The employment of ordinary people in brand advertising differs from using actors, celebrities or experts, and requires a singular mise en scène. We hypothesized that the use of ordinary people allows advertisers to construct an advertising fiction close to the daily life of consumers and potential consumers, establishing a promise of authenticity. To verify this hypothesis, a theoretical review and a content analysis of a corpus composed of 145 audiovisual advertisings messages published in France between 2010 and 2017 were carried out.