Page 46 - Seniors Toady March 2020

Once Upon A Time | Advertising
Sports stars, the
new cultural icons
Today, sports stars are competing with film personalities for celebrity brand
endorsements, writes Prabhakar Mundkur
Time was when you said ‘celebrity’, people took
it to mean a film star. But no longer. While the
earliest celebrities to be used in advertising were
indeed films stars, today sports stars compete
with film stars for brand endorsements.
For example, if one looks at the Forbes Celebrity
100 for 2019, Virat Kohli is No 1. In fact, in the
top 5 there are two sports stars. The old style of
rating celebrities was to look at their earnings.
Today’s celebrity ranks are a function not only
earnings but of their fame quotient arrived at
through their print and social media reach. And
because sport is as big an industry as cinema at
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least in terms of visibility and exposure though
not in valuation, sports stars are much wanted by
advertisers.
Sports is also related to the fitness industry,
and fitness is quickly becoming the national
obsession, with strings of gyms opening over
the country, and the familiar sight of runners
and cyclists on the roads in the country every
morning.
In India perhaps the first sports icon to bring
fame to brands was Kapil Dev in Palmolive da
jawab nahi. Almost everybody remembers that
commercial. And of course, Kapil Dev in the