Celebrities and Brand Building In India + Hollywood and Brand Building
By Kamla Bhatt • Mar 10th, 2008Category: Books, Movies, Music, Televison, Bollywood, Bombay/Mumbai, Ideas, India, People, Video, YouTube Videos
Joe Leahy of Financial Times in a recent article talks about how Bollywood stars and cricket players have emerged as big players in the world of advertising. He writes:
“In Hollywood, it would be hard to imagine reigning megastars such as Brad Pitt or George Clooney diluting their celebrity status by endorsing such everyday products as antiseptic cream or cheap mobile phone deals.”
Mr. Leahy is right that Hollywood megastars like Brad Pitt and George Clooney would not dilute their celebrity status by endorsing everyday products. But, there is a caveat: the same megastars Brad Pitt and George Clooney are not averse to endorsing products via advertisements in different countries like Japan and Europe. For decades Hollywood stars have raked in millions of dollars by endorsing all kinds of products in Japan and other countries ranging from coffee, beers, cars, etc. etc. Pitt and Clooney do endorse everyday products (everyday products could be a subjective thing I guess) in Japan as these video clips of Pitt and Clooney show.
And here is John Travolta from a Japanese advertisement aired over 20 years ago.
I suspect Bollywood and sports stars have taken a leaf out of Hollywood stars and learnt how to tap into that extra stream of revenue through advertisements. Therefore, I am not entirely certain after seeing these video clips that I agree with Mr. Leahy’s suggestions/observations about western celebrities and advertisements and the dilution of their celebrity brand.
Technorati tags: bollywood, hollywood, advertisements, brad pitt, george clooney, bollywood and advertisement, india, mumbai
Kamla Bhatt is the host and producer of an Internet Radio show where listeners can find stories about the new and emerging India and the global Indian community. As a pioneer of 'internet radio' format in India Kamla started her first show News about India, followed by TalkNewsIndia in 2005. In 2006 she premiered her new show: The Kamla Bhatt Show: Life, People and Ideas. 
