Movies might be a relatively newer art form, at least compared to music, painting, and theater, among others. However, as soon as movies became a regular part of our lives, society experienced certain shifts that remained forever. It brought a new form of entertainment in our lives, and a new manner of consuming it, i.e., going to theatres to watch them. But with that practice, we gave birth to the culture of a ‘Celebrity.’
A celebrity, by definition, is a person widely recognized or famous in a field of work; most often in entertainment/movies. Celebrities also emerge from Sports, Politics, Music, etc. However, the rise of celerity culture changed everything about our perception. Their fame and larger-than-life personalities garnered respect and adulation from common people to the extent that their endorsements became trustworthy.
This was the beginning, and subsequently the rise, of Celebrity Culture. In the early days of Hollywood, stars such as Charlie Chaplin, Mickey Mantle (Baseball player), Jimmy Stewart, Humphrey Bogart, etc., did brand endorsements. Their aura, attitude, fame, and personality created a potent concoction that was not only alluring and charming to the audience but also immediately believable.
Hence, whatever brand or product they talked about became intricately associated with whatever quality they mentioned. This is basically how Celebrity Endorsements work. It’s the ‘101 Course’ on a ‘Celebrity Endorsement’ handbook.
In India, as Bollywood was also on the rise throughout the 20th century, concurrently with Hollywood, celebrity endorsement became a norm here as well. It wasn’t really an alien concept to the Indian viewers.
We, too, created stars here, from Raj Kapoor to Ashok Kumar to Kishore Kumar to Dilip Kumar to Madhubala to Vyjanthimala to Dev Anand to many others. Through the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, celebrity endorsements became rampant in the country as television became an everyday item in our households.
Kishore Kumar and Ashok Kumar endorsed Brylcreem, Leela Chitnis endorsed Lux soap, Vinod Khanna endorsed Cinthol soap, etc.
Celebrity Brand Endorsements are an effective tool, one that can do wonders for the brand. Over the years, many celebrities, both in India and abroad, have endorsed countless brands. At various points of time in history, several controversies broke out regarding this culture of Celebrity Endorsements.
Several questions were raised regarding the authenticity of the claims in such ads, controversies regarding the harmful nature of the product being endorsed by a celebrity, which, in turn, affected the celebrity’s reputation, such as with Amitabh Bachchan and Madhuri Dixit during the “Lead being found in Maggi” controversy, and most recently the ongoing Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar controversy regarding endorsing a tobacco product in Vimal Pan Masala.
Despite all such negative impacts, celebrity culture and celebrity brand endorsement remained a sturdy and trustworthy marketing tool. It barely lost its magic on people. However, in recent times, it seems to have lost its charm a bit. Reports and analyses have found that celebrity brand endorsements aren’t received in the same way by the public as they were before.
This could be due to multiple reasons. It could be because of the immense scrutiny of each celebrity’s life who endorses a product, more conscious and aware citizens are about every product, legal issues, and social media exposure are driving narratives that travel far. Whatever it may be, celebrity endorsements are under immense risk for managers.
In as recent as 2021, celebrity endorsements saw a 44% rise in India. But with the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) 2019 and the 2022 CCPA guidelines, it is mandated that endorsers perform due diligence and could be held legally responsible for misleading claims. This automatically not only made brands conscious, but also made celebrities more cognisant of what brands they want to associate themselves with.
The other risk management and marketing companies face is the negative information about a celebrity that can have a bad image on the brand. It could potentially ruin the goodwill of that brand developed over many years. And in today’s day, when social media exposure is at its peak, everything gets recorded, and barely anything is private, many celebrities are at risk of getting exposed.
It could be an old tweet by someone, some old pictures that might be inappropriate, or some domestic activity that gets recorded by someone and put on the Internet. Things could get ruined overnight.
Even if none of these controversies occur, we are constantly exposed in the virtual world today; celebrities more than anybody. This constant overexposure will lead to the celebrity endorsing multiple brands, which in turn might reduce the brand’s credibility. It won’t necessarily affect the celebrity’s brand value if he/she are still popular in their line of work.
Take MS Dhoni, for example, who endorses a host of different brands. While these brands look to benefit from Dhoni’s fame, a lot of them get crushed under the overwhelming presence of other brands.
Such brands that solely rely on celebrity endorsements don’t always stand out from the rest. This is why a lot of small capital companies are moving away from celebrity endorsements and investing more in good scripts and production value. With these risks in mind, these are some of the risk-mitigating factors that endorsers might utilize:
- Conducting deep background checks on a celebrity’s past behaviour.
- Verifying the celebrity’s alignment with brand values.
- Inclusion of stringent morality clauses that can lead to immediate termination if the celebrity engages in unlawful or unethical behaviour.
- Inclusion of Indemnity clauses that can protect the company financially in case of liability arising from the celebrity’s actions.
- Limit the number of brands the celebrity can endorse that are in direct competition with them.
- Constant monitoring of the celebrity’s public comments, social media activity, and professional career.
- Prepare a rapid response plan for scandals, which includes taking quick, calculated action that isn’t a knee-jerk reaction.
Overall, if brands fear that the involvement of certain celebrities will harm their product or brand, they may look for alternatives such as influencer marketing or create ads with AI models in them. Either way, given that celebrity endorsements are under immense scrutiny, it may not be the same again as it was in the 1900s.
