- Asia Cup viewers have been expressing outrage on social media following the return of the ads
NEW DELHI : The ongoing Asia Cup cricket tournament has re-ignited the debate on movie stars, including Akshay Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgn and Shahrukh Khan, promoting paan masala brands on TV. While Big B and son Abhishek endorse Kamla Pasand, the others appear in ads for “elaichi” from Vimal.
According to the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, smokeless tobacco products, such as paan masala, can lead to oral pre-malignant lesions, oral cancer, oesophageal cancer, pancreatic cancer, throat cancer, renal cell cancer and is fatal. Asia Cup viewers have been expressing outrage on social media following the return of the ads after Kumar and Bachchan claimed to have distanced themselves from the tobacco brands.
In April, Kumar said after facing public flak he stepped down as the brand ambassador for Vimal Eliachi. In October 2021, Bachchan’s representatives said he sent a legal notice to Kamla Pasand and withdrew from the ad campaign.
However, the popular tournament is full of surrogate ads for elaichi (cardamom) from chewing tobacco companies.
Branding experts said such decisions impact the brand value of ambassadors. “Social ostracism of categories is a reality. Alcohol, tobacco and paan masala are such categories. Just as brand endorsers give positive strokes to brands, similarly brands have the ability of giving negative strokes to the endorsers. These stars definitely run that risk,” said Harish Bijoor, business and brand strategy expert. As per Celebrity Brand Valuation Report 2021 by Duff & Phelps, Kumar ranked number 3 with a brand valuation of $139.6 million, and Bachchan ranked 6 with a brand value of $54.2 million.
Communications strategy consultant Karthik Srinivasan said most stars, who stand to make huge bucks by endorsing paan masala brands, may be gauging if the outrage is temporary. “That may explain why Bachchan offers no statement while these ads continue after a pause, or why Kumar reasons for the continuation of the ads.” In April, Kumar had tweeted apologising for the ad and committing to give away the endorsement money for a worthy cause. Queries emailed to Vimal Elaichi and Kamla Pasand remained unanswered.
Communications strategy consultant Karthik Srinivasan said most stars, who stand to make a lot of money by endorsing paan masalas, may be in wait-and-watch mode to see if the outrage is temporary (like most things on social media). “That may explain why Amitabh Bachchan offers no statement while the ads continue after a pause, or why Akshay Kumar reasons for his ads continuing,” he said. Even as his ads run to complete the contract period, Kumar had tweeted in April apologising for the ad and committing to give away the endorsement to a worthy cause.
Srinivasan said there is increasingly more visible and vocal ‘accountability’ being sought from Hindi film stars even off-screen in terms of ‘appropriate behaviour’. In his view, the outrage seems selective. “This is specific to Hindi cinema. There may be outrage against Ranveer Singh, Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn, or Hrithik Roshan advertising paan masala, but that doesn’t seem to extend to Mahesh Babu standing right next to Tiger Shroff. In fact, Mahesh Babu was trolled in context to his paan masala ad only for saying that ‘Bollywood cannot afford me,’ he said.
Recently, the Department of Consumer Affairs notified guidelines that detail the diligence that celebrities must exercise while endorsing brands. Although the ad industry’s self-regulatory body the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) allows surrogate advertising, it has a code for such ads too.
Manisha Kapoor, CEO, ASCI, said, “Contracts between celebrities and advertisers are subject to the terms mutually agreed upon by them. So this issue of ads continuing after celebrities being disassociated with them will be subject to those terms. Making public statements may be different from the terms they have actually signed. This is an issue that they have to resolve legally or in a court of law. ASCI has no jurisdiction in this matter.”
Lawyer Safir Anand, senior partner at Anand & Anand, agreed that contracts are private agreements between two parties and the understanding between them is captured in a set of terms and conditions and mutual obligations which have a backing in law. “While actor Akshay Kumar withdrew from the paan masala ad, his public statement did indicate that the brand might continue airing the ad till the legal duration of the contract that was binding upon him. Obligations such as these can be imposed by one party on the other and such obligations could be time, performance or milestone bound,” he said.
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