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MUMBAI - Bollywood stars are the top brand endorsers in India after its cricketers failed the advertising industry with a dismal early exit from the World Cup.
Campaigns worth millions of dollars - selling everything from consumer electronics to automobiles and financial services - were yanked out of the media as companies tried to dissociate their brands from the cricketers.
India is a major market for the five major global cricket sponsors - South Korea's LG Electronics, PepsiCo, Hutchison Telecom, motorcycle maker Hero Honda and Indian Oil.
All have been hit by India's early exit from the World Cup, with total losses estimated at nearly US$37 million ($51.4 million), industry officials said.
Television and print commercials featuring cricketers, who until the cup debacle were more in demand than film stars, have been withdrawn by Pepsi, electronics firms Videocon and Sansui and consumer goods company ITC, among others.
"If this goes on and we keep losing, then I tell you all cricketers will be off the clients' list," said Alyque Padamsee, an Indian advertising analyst.
"They'll say 'No I don't want any cricketers, you can never tell if their form is up, their form is down. Give me movie stars'."
India's advertising market grew 23 per cent in 2006 to US$3.6 billion and is forecast to expand 18 per cent in 2007 on the back of booming economic growth.
The industry is now reconsidering a strategy of having cricketers as brand ambassadors because of the team's fickle fortunes and the repeated failure of individual players.
Bollywood, advertisers feel, is a safer bet not only because film stars retain their appeal for longer but also being professional actors their sales pitch looks less contrived than that of a cricketer.
Videocon chairman Venugopal Dhoot said his firm was renewing ties with Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan to endorse products.
"His popularity cannot be compared to any cricketer," Dhoot was quoted as saying by the Mumbai Mirror, referring to the actor's wide acceptance among consumers. "He's above all in any given season."
Advertisers said India's disastrous World Cup would also mean more stringent contracts for cricketers with performance clauses so that some returns are guaranteed.
- REUTERS
