{"id":3271,"date":"2016-07-29T06:07:06","date_gmt":"2016-07-29T00:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3271"},"modified":"2016-07-29T06:07:06","modified_gmt":"2016-07-29T00:37:06","slug":"celebrity-brand-endorsements-advertisements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=3271","title":{"rendered":"Dear Ad Makers, Do Superstars Really Drive Hatchbacks or Wear Sasta Baniyans?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

D<\/span><\/p><\/div>

uring the ongoing <\/span>India-England<\/span><\/a> Test series, the biggest surprise didn\u2019t come in the form of upsets suffered by Kohli and Co, but the ad breaks between overs. If your remote is broken, and you\u2019re too lazy to get up and change the channel manually during advertisements, you might have caught a glimpse of <\/span>Ranveer Singh<\/span><\/a> trying to peddle the new Maruti Suzuki Ciaz. As usual, he\u2019s looking coiffed and smug, wearing a seizure-inducing blazer and an expression that says, \u201cFrom the amount these idiots are paying me, I can buy myself another Aston Martin. This time I\u2019ll get it in mauve to match the colour of my next tux.\u201d<\/span>\n\nIf you actually believe Ranveer would be caught dead in a <\/span>Maruti<\/span><\/a>, let alone being alive and well and enjoying a simulated drive in a mid-range sedan, it\u2019s time to take off your rose-tinted shades. The last time I went to buy a car (which was 10 years ago and is a once-in-a-decade event for most of us), I wasn\u2019t thinking about <\/span>Shah Rukh<\/span><\/a> in a Hyundai or Arvind Kejriwal in a Wagon R. What I was thinking about was the down payment, number of <\/span>EMIs<\/span><\/a>, mileage, maintenance costs. And of course free servicing, insurance waiver, and complimentary perks. Even free seat covers, key chains, and a twig of air purifier are enough to please the middle-class man. \u00a0<\/span>\n\nIf I had so much as suggested to my family that we buy a Renault Kwid because an unshaved, unwashed <\/span>Ranbir Kapoor<\/span><\/a> was using it to effortlessly pick up girls on random, rustic drives, I\u2019d probably have found myself sleeping in the same car after being turned out of my house.<\/span>\n\nSo, what\u2019s the point of celebrity endorsements anyway? Do companies really believe that consumers dash out to buy Oppo smart phones after watching <\/span>Deepika Padukone<\/span><\/a> and Siddharth Malhotra click pretty selfies in Prague? I might be wrong, but most of us with nine-to-five jobs would go for the cheapest Chinese brand that can convincingly pass off as an <\/span>iPhone<\/span><\/a> in a dark room or at a distance. (And isn\u2019t Xiaomi the best-selling smartphone in India? Somehow I can\u2019t remember the ads, assuming they advertise at all.)<\/span>\n\n

Would it hurt anybody to make advertisements slightly realistic \u2013 like throwing in Nawazuddin Siddiqui into a Salman Khan masala flick.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nIf we believed what our celebs endorsed, a lot more men would be walking around like SRK spraying Denver deodorants into the air. In fact, I\u2019m so confused between <\/span>Akshay Kumar<\/span><\/a> hawking Layer\u2019r Shot and Arjun Rampal pretending to use Nivea on his sculpted, shaved underarms, that I\u2019ve switched to talcum powder.<\/span>\n\nThere are hundreds and thousands of <\/span>books<\/span><\/a> and papers written on why companies use celebrities for endorsements. Brain scientist Jeff Stibel, in an article titled \u201cHere\u2019s Why You Can\u2019t Resist Celebrity Endorsements,\u201d suggests, \u201cWhen a familiar face promotes a product, it makes it seem as if the product itself is familiar, which makes people more likely to buy it.\u201d So no matter how random the pairing of superstar and product might seem, there is some <\/span>science<\/span><\/a> at work here.<\/span>\n\nBut advertisers like our filmmakers give little thought to realism. <\/span>Priyanka Chopra<\/span><\/a> could never be a convincing Mary Kom and no one believes Shah Rukh when he sells Lux Cozi. Would it hurt anybody to make advertisements slightly realistic \u2013 like throwing in <\/span>Nawazuddin Siddiqui<\/span><\/a> into a Salman Khan masala flick. For example, how about <\/span>PV Sindhu<\/span><\/a> endorsing a muscle spray, even if she doesn\u2019t carry one in her racquet bag or use it? The next time I sprain my back trying to lift my partner\u2019s overpacked suitcase after a shopping trip to Dubai, and am trying to order a muscle spray online from the myriad options, that brand might stick.<\/span>\n\nOr take the Just Dial ad featuring the Big B. He very deftly points out that one can use the app to even plan a wedding. You can find banquet halls, choreographers, caterers, DJs, whatnot. I am not planning a wedding anytime soon (like buying cars, I try to get married only once in a decade), but that ad hit home, more so because I know, from reading the Economic Times regularly, that Mr Bachchan, either personally or through ABCL, has a stake in Just Dial. The man is literally putting his mouth where his money is \u2013 and that\u2019s worthy of respect. <\/span>\n\nThere\u2019s no getting away from the superstar brand ambassador. Their cutouts surprise you in the aisles of shopping malls, their hoardings fill your vision on your commute, and they\u2019re omnipresent on TV, radio, and even the internet. I might as well make my peace with the concept, and figure out a way to separate the good from the bad. In short, celebrity endorsements are like first dates: If they don\u2019t feel genuine, they\u2019re probably going to suck. <\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s the deal with celebrity endorsements? Do companies really believe that consumers dash out to buy their new car just because Ranveer Singh supposedly uses one? Who really believes a Bollywood superstar would be caught dead driving a modest hatchback?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":283,"featured_media":3272,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[141,2433,6376,4036,6377,6378,6379,19,6380],"class_list":["post-3271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pov","tag-bollywood","tag-bollywood-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-celebrity","tag-celebrity-brand-endorsements","tag-celebrity-endorsements","tag-endorsements","tag-india","tag-maruti"],"yoast_head":"\nDear Ad Makers, Do Superstars Really Drive Hatchbacks or Wear Sasta Baniyans?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What\u2019s the deal with celebrity endorsements? Do companies really believe that consumers dash out to buy their new car just because Ranveer Singh supposedly uses one? Who really believes a Bollywood superstar would be caught dead driving a modest hatchback?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3271\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dear Ad Makers, Do Superstars Really Drive Hatchbacks or Wear Sasta Baniyans?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What\u2019s the deal with celebrity endorsements? Do companies really believe that consumers dash out to buy their new car just because Ranveer Singh supposedly uses one? Who really believes a Bollywood superstar would be caught dead driving a modest hatchback?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3271\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arr\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-29T00:37:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1535973102.gif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1337\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"747\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Deepak Kaul\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Dear Ad Makers, Do Superstars Really Drive Hatchbacks or Wear Sasta Baniyans?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"What\u2019s the deal with celebrity endorsements? 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