celebs......just a few

Ads and celebs...they can't do without each other. Both would look incomplete without the other's company.But I just hope that this relationship has a bit more quality and style to it.

SRK endorses 33 brands(whoops) but not even a single ad would come to our minds which might even come close to being called a good ad. For e.g. Compaq, ' ...ban jaye baat'; a poor concept and a poorly executed ad. It's tough to understand what the brief would have been like and how the hell could creatives embark on such an idea and more so make the client accept it?? I could go on and on about (bad) SRK ads but that is not what I am talking about.

The point I want to make here is that there is something wrong with the way celebs are handled in most ads. And that too one of the most popular ones. There is a similar story about the ads of Ms. Aishwarya Rai, Sachin Tendulkar, Amitabh Bachchan and there could be many more added to the list. It seems that the whole concept of the ad gets overwhelmed by the presence of a celeb having such a strong star power and brand image.

On the other hand there are exceptions. Just have a look at the new John Players ad, Hrithik looks smashing and the basic idea is conveyed with such style. The Launch ad of Toyota Innova, I believe, was the epitome of how a celeb can be used. Showing all the characters that Amir has played and streamlining it with the basic idea of '..moving ahead'. All Rahul Dravid's ads also seem to make sense and go with his personality.

And so we arrive at the inference that there should always be some kind of justification as to which celeb is being used for which product. I agree that the brand is identified with the star endorsing it which in turn gives them a wider audience but then if everything would have been so easy then why would the creatives be there at all.

Then there are the brave ones and the better ones like those of Tata Indigo, Chlormint,Greenply which are doing good enough without having the face of a celeberity. The star which excites you like the one of those old pepsi ads of SRK-Kajol-Rani is what we expect .