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The empirical measurement of a celebrity's marketable "celebrityness" has, until now, been a fuzzy science. Sure, there are Q-ratings, power lists, salary charts, and the informal caste lettering system consensus that firmly places a Nicole Kidman on the Chanel-pimping A-list, while a Patricia Heaton floats comfortably somewhere in the Albertson's B-zone. But now, thanks to the scientifically rigorous Davie-Brown Index, all the guesswork has finally been taken out of assessing a celebrity's ability to shill burgers and hair products. Reports THR:

Davie-Brown Entertainment is set to launch on Monday (February 13) a celebrity-evaluation index for brand marketers and their ad agencies. The company says the index will determine a celebrity's relevance to a brand's image and their influence on consumer-buying behavior.


The so-called Davie-Brown Index, or DBI, will be compiled and managed by i.think inc. based on surveys of its 1.5 million-member research panel, which is demographically balanced across the country, said Jeff Chown, president of Davie-Brown Talent. More than 1,500 celebrities will be included in the index, which evaluates celebrities based on eight key attributes: appeal, notice, trendsetting, influence, trust, endorsement, aspiration and awareness.

The innovative 8-point assessment system, while thorough, did have a few kinks. Paris Hilton, for example, scored an unfairly low "awareness" number, due to interviewees misinterpreting the category as measuring the celebrity's own awareness of the world around them, as opposed to the other way around. Still, depite other low scoring ("Trust: 0, Aspiration: 0, Appeal: 0"), the researchers admitted Hilton was still a highly marketable celebrity pitchman, thanks to her off-the-charts numbers in the elusive ninth category: "Skank factor."