Regarding the appearance of celebrities in advertisements that do not involve host selling, the evidence is mixed. Researcher Charles Atkin found that children believe that the characters used to advertise breakfast cereals are knowledgeable about cereals, and children accept such characters as credible sources of nutritional information. This finding was even more marked for heavy viewers of television. In addition, children feel validated in their choice of a product when a celebrity endorses that product. A study of children in Hung Kong, however, found that the presence of celebrities in advertisements could negatively affect the children's perceptions of a product if the children did not like the celebrity in question.
名人在不涉及“销售主持人”这种形式的广告中出现的证据比较繁杂。研究员Charles Atkin发现，孩子们认为，宣传早餐麦片的名人对谷物知识深有了解，因此他们相信这样的名人是营养信息的可信来源。这一发现对于沉迷电视的观众来说更加明显。此外，当一个名人代言产品时，孩子们会觉得自己选择的产品是经过检验的。然而，一项对香港儿童的研究发现，如果孩子们不喜欢这个名人，那么名人的存在可能会让孩子们对产品的认知产生负面影响。