Celebrity and integrity Hrush
From a global perspective, the jury is out on whether celebrity endorsements are actually worth the money. In India, however, advertisers and marketers view celebrity endorsements as the surefire way to get their brands to stand apart. Movie and television stars, athletes (read cricketers) and even the “Why is this person famous?” Page 3 types are all peddling someone’s wares in exchange for money. One cannot throw a cat in India without hitting a celebrity hawking something, from the mundane–ballpoint pens–to the opulent–luxury watches.
Celebrity endorsement is a strategy in brand communication where a celebrity acts as the ambassador and spokesperson for a brand. By endorsing the brand, the celebrity is certifying the brand’s claim and position by extending his or her personality, popularity and stature to the brand.
There are three essential aspects that brands must consider before embarking down the road of celebrity endorsement:
- Attractiveness of the celebrity
- Credibility of the celebrity
- Meaningful connection between the celebrity and the brand
If one were to examine India Inc’s endorsement deals in light of these three aspects, they don’t hold up well; especially with respect to the third aspect. Very few of the endorsement deals in place establish any connection at all between the celebrity and the brand or product being endorsed.
It is easy to see why Indian celebrities have jumped on to the endorsement bandwagon with gusto–greed is a powerful motivator. Understanding why Indian advertisers are so gung ho about celebrity endorsements, however, is a mystery. There is very little to suggest that the current crop of endorsement deals is effective or well engineered.
The success of any brand-celebrity pairing depends heavily on the credibility of the connection between the brand and the celebrity. Successful brand-celebrity collaborations come from the integrity of the relationship between brand and celebrity.
Nike and Michael Jordan are a shining example of a brand-celebrity relationship with real, solid integrity. It is easy to see why Michael Jordan endorses Nike’s products–he actually, actually uses their products every day. It is equally easy to see why Nike wants Jordan as their spokesman–he is the very best of his breed; he represents the pinnacle of excellence that Nike’s brand stood for even before it paired up with Jordan.
When a relationship has integrity, like the Nike/Jordan relationship has, it breeds success beyond anything that has come before it. The Nike/Jordan relationship went well beyond any athletic endorsement deal that preceded it. Prior to this deal, athletes were paid to wear the products of the brands they endorsed and not much else. Nike created the Air Jordan brand and an entire line of products was built around their relationship with Jordan.
Michael Jordan, in fact, has so much personal integrity, that he refuses to endorse any brand that he doesn’t use himself. When Jordan signed an endorsement deal with Oakley, the sunglasses company, he took a seat on Oakley’s board and accepted a paltry half million dollars as cash compensation. Jordan endorsed Oakley and took a board seat instead of cash because he believed in the products, because he used the products every day.
Let’s compare the Nike/Jordan relationship with some of India Inc’s relationships:
- Shahrukh Khan and Santro
- Priyanka Chopra and Hero Honda
- Preity Zinta and TVS Scooty
- Juhi Chawla and Dena Bank
We’ve just listed four relationships here, but the list is as long as the relationships are ridiculous. These brand-celebrity relationships strain credibility to the levels of Bollywood movies. Does anyone really believe that Shahrukh Khan drives a Santro? Or that Priyanka Chopra and Preity Zinta ride scooters? Or that Juhi Chawla actually entrusts her net worth to Dena Bank?
Most of India’s brand-celebrity relationships are completely bankrupt–there is absolutely no connection established between the brand and the celebrity endorsing it. In many cases, the celebrity just eclipses the brand; audiences remember the celebrity, but they forget which brand is being advertised. The only things driving these relationships are the greed of celebrities and the foolishness of big-budget advertisers.
Aside: There’s a reason you’ve never seen Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro or Julia Roberts in a commercial. Hollywood stars actually see advertising deals as cheapening their image. Bollywood stars are too cheap to look at things that way.
Another stellar example – Amitabh Bachchan and all advertisable products minus women’s sanitary napkins.
Excellent post. Totally agree ….
When Dish TV launched the Shahrukh’s "TV se santusth nahin campaign", his mansion had 5-6 Tata Sky connections. Tata Sky installers took photos of the installations on his mansion and decided to run a campaign "SRK Dish TV se hi Santusht nahin". They eventually didn’t do it but goes back to your point.
Another one. When Warren Buffet spoke about his suit maker Dalian Dayang Trands in China, they started getting calls from the top CEO’s and executives across the world. This is true brand endorsement to me. They didn’t have to pay money to Mr Buffet for a brand endorsement, just give a good product.
Your observation about Hollywood/Bollywood stars isn’t accurate. The hollywood biggies have their own share of insincere ads.
Check out http://www.japander.com/ for a whole bunch of japanese ads featuring pretty much the who’s who of Hollywood.
Aamir Khan and Sachin Tendulkar to some extent, may perhaps be the only conformists in our otherwise mediocrity driven ‘celebrity’ fueled crass-commercial-circus…
Why Indian advertisers are so gung ho about celebrity endorsements — fear. If you don’t get the stars, your competitors will. Look at all those underwear companies .. every one has a bollywood star. Hrithik (Macroman), Sunny Deol and now SRK (Lux), Salman and now Akshay Kumar (Dollar).
Julia Roberts & Tom Cruise not endorsing products is a faux pas.Julia Roberts has endorsed AOL & Avon. Tom Cruise has endorsed Apple. This print ad for Apple Mac Book has appeared in Wired mag.
http://gadgetsteria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/mission-impossible-copy1.jpg
That’s not a real Apple ad at all. And product placement i.e. products appearing in a movie as a part of the narrative is not the same as celebrity endorsement.
looks like somebody approached a celeb for endorsement and got rejected… hahahaha….
oh, and before you make the "product is our celeb" argument, keep your multiple useless cashback offers in mind.
@rajiv Actually, we’ve always stayed away from celebrity endorsements for our brand by choice. We don’t think they’d work for us at all.
As a few comments have pointed out quite a few hollywood actors endorse various products. Many of hem endorse products abroad, esp Japan. Not sure where you picked up this "low-brow" "scientology" Tom Cruise types are people of integrity. Check out this extract on my blog: http://broken-news.blogspot.com/2007/04/pushing-products-in-movies.html . Stanley Kubrick pioneered blended ads in movies. Surprised, eh ?
… hahahaha….
@rajiv, who needs celeb endorsements, when you have superhero endorsements.
They make those ads because they work. The masses appreciate them and identify with them. Even if for a (very) few with (so called) evolved and very westernized tastes those are ‘cheap’ or likewise. To think that the advertising community is stupid or that those celebrities are idiots is at best naive.
Pryanka Chopra might not use a scooter, but hell she looks good in that ad. The people of this country do not assume, for even a second, I am sure, that she does actually use that scooter. That’s not the point of it.
It is very easy to dismiss things, but if you notice this is a open system and if those ads had not worked their intended purpose, they or their type would not propagate.
@quasi — most advertisers have no ability to *prove* whether a television ad worked or not. A past chairman of Unilever is on record as saying something along the lines of "I know half my advertising dollars are a waste, I just don’t know which half."