Can the Gerber baby get you out of hot water? If you need to project innocence and honesty, apparently the Gerber baby was made-to-order.  Because when disaster strikes, looks do matter. 

Consumers are pre-disposed to believe baby-faced CEOs and other responsible company representatives really didn’t know about, or were too naive to recognize, risks. In other words, as a baby-faced CEO, you’re more believable.

But if it’s a question of whether you know what to do when faced with crisis? If that’s the case, you’ll need some of that been-there-done-that mature grey hair.  Your baby-faced CEO may be honest, but he probably doesn’t have the experience to handle the really rough stuff. But when you’ve earned those grey hairs? Well duh…to paraphrase IBM’s founder Thomas Watson’s words after one of his executives made a multi-million dollar mistake, you think I spent all that money on your training only to let you walk away?

The Journal of Consumer Research published the original study, but if you prefer English, check out the Reuters article. Is plastic surgery the next corporate perk?