Wednesday, September 24, 2008
When Abhishek Bachchan had married Aishwarya Rai there was a salivating anticipation among the media planners that the whole family would be a huge brand and there was a great synergy in using them in combination for promoting a brand. However no campaign has been rolled so far, in which even the couples have been featured together, what to talk about the family as a whole.
It indeed is an interesting value proposition that the film star families, where both husband and wives are celebrities are not featured in an ad on a regular basis, though it happens in sports on a regular basis. Could it be owing to the fact that when in a family of sports star appears in a campaign as he is the sole celebrity the campaign uses him or her as the foci and builds up the copy around him, while this maxim is difficult nay impossible to operate in case of film stars as one cannot be excluded at the cost of the other for promoting a brand.
Could this also be the reason that we see a Hema Malini being featured along with Esha and Aahana in an ad campaign as the quotient of halo around Hema Malini is of a higher magnitude when compared with Esha and Aahana. Is it also the same reason that Sharmila Tagore appeared in ad with Soha Ali but has not featured with Saif Ali Khan in a campaign so far?
The celebrity couples are in large numbers but they seldom appear together in a campaign. Amitabh Bachchan for record had appeared with Abhishek Bachchan in a campaign for Maruti Versa but after that there was no follow up. Ajay Devgun had also appeared along with Kajol in few ads but now it is Kajol who is going solo, while Ajay has dropped out.
Is it owing to the fact that the campaign designers still see each of the stars as individual entities and do not go into account the metamorphosis that has undergone into their relationships or do not try to change the relationship in the mind of the consumers through designing a campaign in such a manner. LG who has Abhishek Bachchan as the brand manager tried to do it once, but did not follow it up.
Advertisement after all, is innovation so why not innovate. A beginning could be made with DRONA where Abhishek Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan are appearing together and an ad campaign could be built around it. Or for that matter in the next series of “What an Idea Campaign', Big B could be roped in. Possibilities are endless, only deconstruction in the approach is required.
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