ADmired Celebs- The endorsement tale

Celebrity endorsements are a good tool for increasing sales, especially when the celeb

involved is high profile and quite well-known. Film stars fit the bill perfectly and an

analogy is tried to be established between the brand and the traits of the celebrity used.

Thus positioning becomes easy. You see an ad of the ‘Men in Blue’ with a round red,

white and blue logo and you go, ‘Pepsi!’ See a picture of Aishwarya Rai in a red dress on

a white background and immediately one is reminded of L’Oreal.

So what makes celebrity endorsements click? The answer is, quite simply, the need to

identify oneself with the brand or rather with the celebrity endorsing it, who seems to

have something in common with the brand. If a teenaged girl buys Vivel Soap, it could be

because she idolizes Kareena Kapoor or perhaps admires the actor’s skin though she may

never admit it. So there!

It is for this reason that advertisers quantify and qualify the use of celebrities in their

marketing campaigns by evaluating their awareness, appeal relevance to a brand’s image

and the celebrity’s influence on consumer buying behavior. They know, celebrities,

especially actors, that often portray the underdog and commoners, are the best means to

strike a chord with the target consumers.

The only problem these days is that there are too many brands and too many celebrity

endorsements. What’s worse is that, there’s one celebrity endorsing several products.

And it’s hard to remember which. One can’t say it’s bad for the celebrity since everything

is fair as long as one can rake in the moolah. But for the advertiser it definitely is

detrimental because a consumer may get confused about the brands.

Amitabh Bacchan is all over the ad scene- from Navratna Oil to Dairy Mail to Parker Pen

to ICICI to Tanishq and what not! It gets all the more confusing when endorsers switch

brands in the same category. Aamir Khan who endorsed Pepsi was roped in by Coke.

The consumer was so used to Mayur Suiting’s ‘Shahrukh Mayur Khan’ when suddenly

Salman Khan was b(r)ought to endorse it.

Celebrity endorsements can definitely leverage the popularity of a brand by smart use

of celebrities. But the thing to be remembered is that one should never fall into the trap

of believing that bringing in a popular celeb will change the game for the product. No, it

won’t. But sensible marketing would.

Students Speak

Which endorsement’s a hit, which one’s a miss?

The Hits

Kareena Kapoor in Airtel Dish TV: The ad has a story line, that’s what I like

about it. And it seems so real- Kareena looking all scared, the child walking in

and the whole scene turning about to be a show on TV. Great execution!

-Shibili

Mohanlal in Malabar Gold’s Malinya Vimukta Keralam: The message is a

good one. I would say these are the kinds of ads celebs should endorse because

they have a huge fan following and youngsters are actually influenced by what

their idols say and do.

-Shini

Akshay Kumar in Thums Up: The man has been endorsing this brand for quite

a while now. I feel ‘Taste the thunder’ goes well with his personality. He is a

black belt holder, known to be adventurous and doesn’t look clumsy doing the

things he shown doing in the ads. Thumbs up, really!

-Veena

The Misses

Mohanlal in Manappuram Gold Loan: Oh I hate it! It makes no sense. Why

would someone wealthy like Mohanlal endorse Gold Loan? I mean, why would

I believe his claim? And it’s too dramatized. Add to it, a nauseating track and

horrible dance moves by Mohanlal! I really don’t know what the makers of this ad

were thinking…

-Shibili

Sreesanth in Ayu Care Kizhi: Sreesanth is always in news for all the wrong

reasons. Sreesanth jokes are already doing the rounds; this ad has really made him

the butt of a new set of jokes now! The voice over doesn’t sound like Sreesanth’s

and the overall execution looks bad. I think the endorsement does neither

Sreeshanth nor the brand, any good.

-Shini

Shahrukh Khan in Fair & Handsome: I like SRk for what he is- talented,

handsome and yes, dark! Shahrukh Khan promoting a product like fairness cream

is too fake. I say, he should be out there telling all dark guys to be confident of

their skin tone, making them feel good by saying ‘I am dark and look at me’ but

he’s out there doing just the opposite. I prefer a dark skinned SRK to a botoxed,

light-skinned one any day!

-Veena

ADvent of the Stars

Plato has said, “The beginning is the most important part of the work” and how true it is in the case of some of these hot hunks and lovely ladies who have made it big in the glam world! They came to us through advertisements and the rest as they say, is history. A look at some fresh Indian faces for whom a stint in advertising turned out to be the big ticket to cinema.

  

Vidya Balan

Beautiful, in the classic sense of the word, this Tam Brahm from Palakkad, made her debut as a model in a Surf Excel advertisement in 1998. She was also seen in ads for Gits Idlees, a clinic plus film for the girl child, Krack Cream, and several other advertisements. Her demure ‘woman next door’ looks made her an instant favorite to fit the role of mother and wife in about 25 advertisements. Most of these ads were directed by Pradeep Sarkar and she soon found herself in the lead role for his directorial debut Parineeta which was a success. Prior to Parineeta, she was seen on a comedy serial on Zee TV called 'Hum Paanch'. After her filmdom fame she was seen endorsing brands such as Airtel (with actor Madhavan), Goodknight Mosquito coil, Toshiba etc.

Deepika Padukone

For this long legged beauty, who shot to fame through Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om, tinsel town was not unknown territory. She had already modeled for leading brands such as Liril soap, Dabur Lal, Limca, and Close-up. She had also won the brand ambassadorship of the Jewels of India, an annual jewellery festival. She hit the international scene when Maybelline made her their new international covergirl face. At the fifth annual Kingfisher Fashion Awards, for Indian models and designers, she was awarded the title of Model of the Year. Shortly afterwards, she was chosen as one of the models for the Kingfisher Swimsuit Calendar for 2006. She also won two trophies at the Idea Zee Awards in 2006 - Female Model of the year (Commercial Assignments) and Fresh Face of the year. Today she endorses top brands like Fiama Di Wills, Nescafe, BSNL, Sony Cyber Shot, Levis Jeans, and Neutrogena etc.

John Abraham

John Abraham has a pretty interesting connection with Advertising and his tryst into modeling is even more amusing. John, born to a Malayali father and Parsi mother was a media planner in an agency. He got into modeling because his boss at the ad agency needed a last-minute replacement for a shoot! And thus it began…In 1999, he won the Gladrags Manhunt Contest and went to the Philippines for Manhunt International, where he won the second place. Following this, he was signed by Carrie Models in Singapore and did some modelling there; he later modelled in Hong Kong, London and New York City. He appeared in some music videos after which he made his film debut through Pooja Bhatt’s ‘Jism’ in 2003. A bike enthusiast, today he endorses Yamaha, Castrol, Garnier Men, Wrangler Jeans etc.

Bipasha Basu

This Bengali beauty wanted to study medicine but her destiny had different plans for her. While an under graduate she used to do modeling and part-time ramp shows. It was during this time that she met model Mehr Jessia who suggested that she take part in the Ford Godrej Cinthol contest. As luck would have it she won the contest and she was flown to New York by the Ford Company, where she had a successful modelling career at the age of 17. Ajnabee released in 2001 is her first film. She has endorsed a horde of brands such as Thums Up, Clinic All Clear, Reebok, Gili, Real Activ Juice, Sugar Free Gold, Panasonic, VI John Hair Removal Cream, Emami etc.

Aishwarya Rai

This former Miss World was first seen in a commercial for Camlin pencils when she was in the 9th grade. An aspiring architect, fame courted her even before she was crowned Miss World in 1994. She was seen in commercials for Garden sari, Colgate Gel, Sheetal, and Pepsi. Of these, the Pepsi commercial where she featured with Aamir Khan and Mahima Chowdhary was particularly popular. In fact, Aamir Khan and Aishwarya Rai are the only stars to have endorsed both Coke and Pepsi! After her debut in Iruvar (Tamil) in 1997, her first Hindi movie ‘Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya’ opposite Bobby Deol was released the same year. Aishwarya Rai has been associated with brands such as Coca Cola, Longines Swiss Watches, L’Oreal, etc.

Genelia D’Souza

This cute and bubbly girl was first seen in a Parker Pen commercial with Amitabh Bachchan. After gaining wide attention for the ad she began her acting career with ‘Tujhe Meri Kasam’ in 2003. The film did not do very well at the box office but her Tamil debut ‘Boys’ released the same year was a runaway hit. She has endorsed brands like Fanta, Virgin Mobile India, Fastrack, LG Mobiles, Garnier Light, Margo, Close-up and Perk.

Preity Zinta

A Post Graduate in Criminal Psychology, modeling happened by chance for this dimpled beauty. Her first television commercial was for Perk chocolates, the result of a chance meeting with a director at a friend's birthday party in 1996. The director persuaded her to audition for the spot, and she was selected. Afterwards, she appeared in other catalogues and commercials, including one for the soap Liril. Her noted stints in such ads lead to her being offered roles in movies like Dil Se, Kya Kehna, Soldier etc. Dil Se was her first released movie. She has endorsed Ddamas, Pentacool, Go Air, Emami Edible Oil Healthy and Tasty, etc.

The list, as is obvious, is incomplete. But the above mentioned names are those that have carved a sizeable niche for themselves in the world of movies. I realize that even as I am typing this out, even as these words are being printed on to paper, and possibly, even as you are reading this piece, some ad model, somewhere, in some little commercial, is preparing to join the league of stars mentioned above, without even realizing it. It’s their ADvent, I guess!