Does Cristiano Ronaldo make you want to buy chips?

Just a random thought that struck me about sponsorships:



Does sticking Cristiano Ronaldo on the packaging of Mr. Potato chips make you want to buy the product more? Don't get me wrong, I love Mr. Potato chips and would buy them (on occassion) anyway, but I'm just wondering if printing football stars pictures on the packaging would actually make consumers more likely to buy the product? Or would it make you want to purchase a mobile phone plan even more?

This isn't a rant actually about Mr. Potato (I love their chips and buy them regardless of who's face is on the packaging) but just a musing about how sponsorships are quite, very rampant today. And that sometimes, in the rush to be associated with the latest and coolest, a lot of thinking on relevance gets left behind.

Then there's the audience. I'd like to think that the majority people still make sensible purchase decisions based on what they are getting for what they are paying instead of the mug that gets printed on the packaging.

Yes, sometimes, "special edition" items do get a higher emotional value rating like that red iPod a couple years back from U2, so there's actually a science to how sponsorships can make products worth more than the sum-total of its parts.

Still, I'd like to think consumers are getting more and more intelligent and the simple printed logo or character image doesn't mean as much as it used to.

What do you think? Would you be more likely to pay more for a bag of chips with your fave football star's picture on the packaging?