Star power recalibrated

Gone are the days when a celebrity would endorse a product and people would flock to buy it. It was a time when actually believed that the soap or the cream which the actor or actress endorsed was the one which they really used. But looking at the way stars come endorsing almost each and every product on the shelf today, it would be naïve or rather plan stupid to think that Amitabh would actually use Navratna Oil or the zillion other products he endorses. Or would Hema Mailini be using Kent or Madhuri Dixit using Pepsodent or Shah Rukh Khan using Fair and Handsome?

But more than the believability of stars using the products, today we associate the brands or the products which the stars use as something which they believe in, something which they do not mind standing up for. That explains why Yami Gautam draws a lot of ire as how can she endorse fairness as the way to get ahead in life through her Fair and Lovely ads. Ditto for those endorsing aerated drinks  and a host of other products. Thanks to the social media, lots of blogs are now dedicated to these celebrity ads and their hypocrisy.

Today stars need to more careful about what they endorse as it is associated directly with what they stands for. And that’s a good trend as we all are quite sick of seeing celebrities in one ad after the other, urging us to buy products which they neither believe in nor do they use it.