Waitrose's brand ambassadors

Waitrose has revealed it is launching a branded range with its celebrity chef brand ambassador Heston Blumenthal.

Brand ambassadors are all the rage again, but at what point does a celebrity tie up stop being effective and become overkill?

Sainsbury’s has successfully leveraged Jamie Oliver and his cult following for the past seven years. He fronts the supermarket’s advertising campaigns, his recipes promote Sainsbury’s produce, he is an ambassador for its Active Kids initiative and his political agenda of improving the state of the nation’s eating habits fits in with Sainsbury’s own agenda for healthy eating habits.

Since March this year, Waitrose has been relishing a celebrity-fronted campaign with Blumenthal and national treasure Delia Smith.

Despite the current appeal of both these chefs to Waitrose customers and prospective customers, I’m not convinced the partnership has the same ring of longevity to it that Sainsbury’s has achieved with Oliver.