How important are "industry celebrities" to you when buying a product?

[voodoo_man]

How important are the "industry celebrities" that review or schill a product when you are making a decision to make that product?

Do you prefer independent, non-celebrity, opinions and statements of use over the celebs?

Amended to add:

Who would you say is an industry celebrity in your eyes?

Specifically those who actively train people, LAV, Hack, Lamb, Haley, Costa, etc - just rattled off people who schill stuff and/or put their name on stuff and do "reviews" on other things that they themselves sell and/or make money on and/or items they have no perceived affiliation with.

[scw2]

If the celebrities do not have financial benefits tied to the product and present a relatively unbiased review, I prefer that over the random person that reviews an item on the internet. That way I know it's someone that is reasonably competent as opposed to someone who 'has been shooting guns their whole lives' but may not really have solid training/safety/foundations/etc.

Once products are more established, I would quickly Google and see what some celebrities/blogs/forums might say, and then validate my initial 'feel' against the the Amazon reviews to see the distribution of crowd sourced reviews, the best and most helpful review, plus maybe get an idea of the customer service when things go wrong with a purchase.

That said, I'd be happy to review any products for no charge. I can promise to be as unbiased as possible, but I cannot guarantee my endorsement will help increase your sales of whatever you plan to sell!

[Chris Rhines]

Celebrity endorsements matter not at all to me; in fact, they often have a mild negative influence. I hate advertising and marketing.

When I'm choosing gear, I tend to look at 1.) Overall trends in the field, and 2.) First-hand testimonials from friends.

[Mr_White]

How important are the "industry celebrities"

Like who? Ted Nugent? FPS Russia?

[Peally]

They matter exactly zero. I'm like Chris, I hate having crap sold to me. Field trends and equipment that's repeatedly proven as good to go is my SOP for shopping.

[Peally]

Like who? Ted Nugent? FPS Russia?

I'm guessing he means big name trainers and such. If people here are making purchasing decisions based on what the Nuge or a crappy Russian impersonator are saying they're in the wrong internet

[BehindBlueI's]

I don't know many industry celebrities, but with the exception of new editions from Ruger I don't buy much that's new and unproven. I'm still carrying traditional Sig P-series pistols. Holsters, I sniff around forums and see what people are saying and what strikes my fancy.

[voodoo_man]

Like who? Ted Nugent? FPS Russia?

Would you say they are industry celebrities?

I guess I should have been clearer - specifically those who actively train people, LAV, Hack, Lamb, Haley, Costa, etc - just rattled off people who schill stuff and/or put their name on stuff and do "reviews" on other things.

I'll amend my OP.

[GJM]

Well Bax, I just voted for you and double your results in the poll.

As far as I am concerned, Ernest Langdon is like the bell cow around PF.

[scw2]

Like who? Ted Nugent? FPS Russia?

In your example, you picked someone with a YouTube channel. If something was shared in Jerry Miculek's channel I'd definitely give it more weight than something coming from FPS Russia. A more relevant example might be the recent Gadget launch. I remember people asking about the durability of the device, and having heard that SouthNarc tested it through multiple evos over the course of 1+ years was helpful to me. Whether or not the wider target audience will recognize him may be a cause for concern/debate.