Celebrity Parents and Kids as Brand Ambassadors: an Advertising Trend

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

Here’s my take on 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.