Influencers are hot cakes in the advertising world amidst COVID. Celebrities, a slightly more mature category of influencers, continue to ride the tide in the pandemic and consumers have come across various celebrity endorsements during the pandemic.
Celebrity Endorsement without any claims of using the product
Celebrities have been claiming to use products and endorsing them for ages. However, I came across a couple of celebrity-endorsed communication which almost clearly said that the celebrities never used the product as either the product was not available during their days or it’s too hard to believe the claim. Of course, they try to put it in a way that makes you believe that the product is good to go irrespective of whether they used it or not.
Bottom line, the communication strengthens the fact that the celebrities advertising for the product never used it themselves.
Celebrity Endorsement Example – Arjun Kapoor for Toothsi:
Arjun Kapoor has been seen endorsing the Toothsi ad where he clearly says he is upset because the product was not there during his days. Indirectly saying that he has never used the product.
If you have seen the Toothsi ad, you will be chased by cookies and a social media ad stating ‘Get a Celebrity Smile will hit your feed.’ What an irony!
Celebrity Endorsement Example – Sara Ali Khan for HealthifyMe:
Similarly, HealthifyMe’s ad tends to claim that it helped Sara Ali Khan lose weight. Well, at least the copy intends to communicate the same.
It’s hard to believe that an actress coming from a veteran Bollywood family relied on an app and not a fitness coach for her transformation.
I remember phone companies tend to hand over a phone to the celebrity endorsing it and the job of the celebrity was to ensure that during the contract he/she appears with that phone in all public appearances. e.g. Dhoni using Lava phone, Katrina using a Sony Xperia or Varun Dhawan using a Panasonic phone. Though, these celebrities used to carry these as a parallel device to their primary phone. But it was an indirect testimony of the celeb using the product and then endorsing them.
The communication today says in your face that the product was not there during their times but you should use it.
I smell a disconnect, do you ?
Nowadays Celebrity Endorsement in India has become more complicated with new ASCI rules which makes the celebrities more accountable towards the product they are endorsing.