The Perfect Product Spokesperson? You.

I’ve never been a big fan of using celebrities to endorse products.

From a purely creative standpoint, I think it’s a weak substitute for an actual idea, an easy alternative to rolling up your sleeves and developing communications that break through and convey a real point of differentiation.

But beyond creative laziness, using celebs, in my view, has a plethora of negatives.

For starters, there’s the erosion of the product’s own brand identity. As soon as you get LeBron James, for example, to sign on the dotted line, your product becomes LeBron James. Your identity becomes LeBron James. Your personality becomes LeBron James.

And when that relationship ends, for whatever reason, what have you got? Not much. Just ask all those companies who are still dealing with the untimely death of pitchman Billy Mays.

Even more risky is the control you lose. When you attach your brand to that of a celeb, the celebrity becomes the driver. And when that celeb decides to veer off course by doing something illegal or dangerous or just plain stupid, your brand winds up with the dents.

Just ask the gaggle of companies who have hitched their trailers to Tiger Woods. I’ll admit it, Tiger Woods seemed like the safest endorsement bet in the history of advertising. He’s good looking. Smart. Articulate. A family man.

What’s not to love about Tiger, right?

Then came the news of his infidelity and his violent confrontation with his wife. And overnight, his popularity plummeted. In fact, a recent CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll shows Wood’s favorable rating among the public has dropped 24 percentage points since June.

That’s a big hit. And as a result, companies like Nike, Gillette to AT&T are scrambling, trying to decide whether to stick with their tarnished spokesperson or to cut bait.

The lesson we can learn from this is there are no perfectly safe celebrity endorsers. There are no sure things. So my advice: Instead of tying your product to a personality, do the work it takes to give your product a personality of its own. At least you can control that.