Celebrities featuring in
advertisements by no means counts as a recent trend; it has been around for a
very long time now. Lately however, a look at some of the prominent
advertising campaigns shows a clear shift in the way celebrities and their
families are being projected in advertisements.
From the celebrity himself or
herself to his or her spouse advertising campaigns have shown love, affection,
bonhomie and what not among popular couples. As the Lux campaign
featuring Aishwarya and Abhishek and the D Décor advertisements featuring Shah
Rukh and Gauri among other campaigns cashing in on the celebrity couple
popularity factor gave a new twist to celebrity advertising campaigns,
companies turned their attention towards the other most important relationship
in life…parents and children.
For some time now our print and
audio visual advertising campaigns have had celeb parents and kids at the
centre. One reason why this trend has picked up is that today most celebs
who have been media darlings themselves have kids who are equally if not more
successful and in the public eye.
The earliest advertising campaign
to cash in on the “Celeb Parents and Kids” factor is Kent Purifiers. In
the running for some years now the advertising theme has remained the same with
the dream girl Hema Malini and her daughters Esha and Ahana Deol, both
accomplished dancers, with Esha being an actor and Ahana behind the camera now
ready to move in front of the camera.
The other advertising campaign
that has been around for sometime more in print and gracing the pages of
popular women’s magazines and film magazines in India is the one featuring Neetu
Kapoor and daughter Riddhima for Mahesh Notandass. While Neetu Kapoor is
well known as an actress her daughter Riddhima has always kept a low profile,
yet the Notandass brand saw potential in the brand power of this
mother-daughter duo.
More recently other celeb
parent-kids advertising campaigns have featured:
-Sharmila Tagore and Soha Ali
Khan for the Nizam Collection Gitanjali Group’s Jewelry and a brand of
Basmati rice
-Anil and Sonam Kapoor for Mont Blanc
-Rishi and Ranbir Kapoor for
Pepsi
Why this advertising trend has picked up:
1. Advertisers are looking to
reinvent their campaigns. They are looking to add star power but also
want to add that touch of “new, modern and forward looking” to their messages
and brand image. This is where the star kids come in.
2. Most of the celebrity kids
featuring in advertising campaigns are well established celebrities in their
own right thereby adding their own star power to the brands they endorse.
3. The new kids on the block are
role models for the youth which is a big market segment in India.
4. An advertising campaign that
appeals to people and strikes a chord somewhere should be based on some
emotions and relationships. The parent-child relationship is one that
offers scope to depict love, affection, nurturing, humor, camaraderie, bonding
and coming of age.