The warning bells have been rung by Piyush Pandey, group president, Oglivy & Mather. Celebrities (to be read as actors and cricketers) could break careers of writers and creative guys in the ad industry.
There is an inherent danger of this happening with an increasing number of celebs being used as brand ambassadors and brand tools, often substituting for clear ideas, he said.
Rajat Jain, managing director, the Walt Disney Company, sees celebrity endorsement in India becoming more the norm rather than exception, with practically every product category - right from mobile services to petrol - having at least one celebrity endorser. The key, then, lies in using celebrity effectively and, in given circumstances, with more innovation.
This is one thing all the speakers discussing 'the emergence of Indian sports and cinema heroes as brand marketing tools', at the India Brand Summit, agreed on.
Dismissing the claim that there is an overkill of celebrities, Boman Irani, managing director, Keystone group, said celebrities are effective in grabbing eyeballs and, then, it is up to the marketer to make the most of it by using it effectively. But having a celebrity is not enough.
The brand communication has to go beyond just using the celebrity - he or she is a brand tool, not the entire communication. One advantage of having a celebrity to endorse a brand is that it adds some amount of aspiration-value to the brand, which often succeeds in connecting with a larger number of people. And this is something that works especially well in the rural markets.
Also, attributes that people connect with the person tend to rub off on the brand perception as well. For example, mega star Amitabh Bachhan's endorsement of Cadbury right after the worm infestation controversy did wonders in restoring the brand's credibility, simply because it was Big B who said it was safe.
But there are certain pitfalls. With the number of products a single celebrity endorses increasing by the day, there is some amount of diffusion, and often people will not be able to associate a particular celeb with a given brand (think of Bachhan and Sachin Tendulkar).
However, given that the advantages hugely outweigh the disadvantages, celebrity brand endorsement is definitely not only here to stay, but also on the rise.
