LOS ANGELES, May 15, 2007 -- Turns out, we aren't so scared of spiders after all.

According to a survey of U.S. consumers released today, Spider-man ranks as the most influential super-hero, edging two other heavyweight crime-fighters, Batman and Superman.

While Batman is the best-known super-hero among Americans, Spider-man is tops in terms of appeal, notice, and influence, according to the Davie Brown Celebrity Index (DBI), an independent index for brand marketers and agencies that determines a celebrity's ability to influence brand affinity and consumer purchase intent.

Created by Los Angeles marketing agency Davie Brown Entertainment, the DBI rates more than 1500 celebrities across eight attributes.

Among the three super-heroes, Superman ranked first in the DBI's "trust" and "aspiration" categories.

"Spidey's one of those characters that Americans have a clear affinity for," said Jeff Chown, president of Davie Brown Talent. "He's a likeable, trustworthy character who resonates with consumers."

About the Davie Brown Index (DBI)

The DBI provides brand marketers with a systematic approach for quantifying and qualifying the use of celebrities in marketing campaigns by evaluating a celebrity's awareness, appeal and relevance to a brand's image and their influence on consumer buying behavior.

Created by Los Angeles marketing agency Davie Brown Entertainment, the DBI consists of more than 1,500 celebrities and is powered by a 1.5 million-member domestic research panel. Respondents evaluate celebrities along eight key attributes: Appeal, aspiration, awareness, endorsement, influence, notice, trendsetter, and trust.

An overall DBI score is developed each time a celebrity is indexed and can be sorted by key demographics, including gender, age and ethnicity. Each celebrity is also indexed to a specific celebrity category such as "Male Film" or "Female Sports," so searches can be performed at a more detailed level.

The DBI includes today's most relevant celebrities for brand marketers because it's dynamically updated, both on a weekly basis, as well as through special requests from DBI subscribers. This enables brand marketers to react quickly to current events affecting celebrities and gain insight into lesser-known celebrities who are "on the rise."

The overall DBI is calculated using awareness and the other seven measured attributes. Because recognition is often at the heart of celebrity selection, awareness is given a 60 percent weighting in the overall DBI score calculation. The remaining 40 percent is calculated using average sub-index scores.

From a national sample, 1000 respondents are presented with the name and face of a celebrity and asked if they are aware of the individual. Respondents who indicate that they are aware of the celebrity are then asked a standard set of questions about that celebrity, using a 6-point scale to record their responses. These questions form the basis for the celebrity scores on the seven key attributes.

Founded in 1985, Davie Brown Entertainment is the entertainment consulting division of The Marketing Arm.