Celebrity Endorsements are a fraud. It is a lie told to get the consumer to lower skepticism about the product/service. Is the cola/chips/detergent/shampoo really better than all its competitors ? Is your hair really that lustrous because you really use that shampoo everyday or because you have the genes and a hair posse Ash ?
Have you seen Bachan Senior ? Is there any product category he won’t attach name to ? If you have the cheque I suspect he’ll endorse seal clubbing. Wait. He did. They did. Hrithik Roshan, Sachin Tendulkar and Shahrukh Khan….Remember the Home Trade ‘More’ campaign ? I love the way TimesOfIndia mocked the phenomenon. Genius.
Look I love Bachan. Is there any movie that captured both the angst and zeitgeist like Deewar did? But when you tell me to buy something I know you personally have never really been a fan of (cement!) you aren’t convincing me about the product but you sure are telling me something about YOU and your character with your faked sincerity and enthusiasm. That those two emotions can be purchased because its on sale. How crass.
Cricket and Bollywood have got so into this phenomenon I think its now reached a saturation threshold. I mean does the campaign really standout when the next 5 ads also have the same guy in it? Marketing experts will roll out reams of focus group and related studies showing how it works. How consumers want to identify with the celebrity and how their shampoo helps them get one step closer to that aspiration however misguided that instinct may be. Reminds me of the classic line from Tyler in Fight Club. ‘Sticking Feathers up your Butt does not make you a Chicken’ Just because you are blind and stumbling into a dark alleyway am I obligated to rob you ? Do ad agencies and companies go down this murky trail because proving genuine product superiority is murkier ? Or maybe impossible because its isnt superior? What about the downside ?
At least stick to the profession. Ask a basketball pro to endorse basketball shoes. Don’t ask a mutimillionaire actor to endorse cement. Also please don’t get a model to wear a doctor’s coat and pout that I need to but this ‘scientifically proven’ soap/shampoo/paint/toothpaste/bazooka. That’s worse. I think you need to pitch to me with a smarter approach angle or maybe just use the budget in more innovative ways. Don’t tell me that’s impossible. BS. You go the endorsement path because its the laziest way to reach the target demographic. Not because its the smartest or most effective.
Third Eye Observations 
On the same lines, have you seen this particluar ad, where a woman in a two piece bikini is emerging out from the sea? It’s a twenty second ad and that’s all there is in it. To top it all, when it ends you realize it’s for a cement company!!!!
haha…what a stupid ad…thanks for the comment Ritu!