GS Paper 4:
Syllabus: Ethics in Public and personal life
Context:
The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) notified guidelines for ‘Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements, 2022’.
- The guidelines, brought in with immediate effect, are applicable to all forms of advertisements.
According to data released by AdEx India, a division of TAM (Television Audience Measurement) Media Research, celebrity endorsements saw a 44% rise in 2021 over 2020.
Celebrity endorsement: The use of celebrities in order to increase the sales and/ or the recall value of a brand is called celebrity endorsement
Why are celebrities hired?
- Brand endorsers impact the buyers’ purchasing decisions because of the celebrity’s authority and/or relationship with the audience.
- Lazy marketing: When brand endorsers don’t have an idea, so they just hire celebrities as buyers get influenced easily.
- To increase the sales.
Unethical Aspects of Celebrity Endorsement –
- Authenticity: Usage of by famous Celebrities may look unethical when he is a non-user of the product. Moreover, it is quite complex to find out whether a celebrity is a common user of the product.
- g: Sunny Deol endorsing Lux Cozi undergarments or Salman Khan endorsing Lakhani chappals.
- Tarnished image: Celebrity endorsements are unethical when the people involved in any controversies in their life endorse the product reflecting their negative image poorly on the brand so endorsed.
- g Malayalam Actor Dileep who is involved in sexual abuse case endorses many products
- Unsafe or ineffective product endorsement: Unethical aspects pave the way again when celebrities endorse some products which are hazardous to society.
- g. Ajay Devgn endorsing tobacco products (Vimal)
- Compel to buy unwanted products: There are chances wherein celebrities indirectly drive consumers’ impulsive buying behaviour resulting in the purchase of unnecessary/harmful products.
- g Shah Rukh Khan endorsed Pepsi ( tagline as ye Dil mange more)
- Misleading information: when celebrities say something deceptive / make false claims then the endorsement is lacking in ethics.
- g Fair and Lovely are endorsed by many celebrities as skin whitening creams.
- Conflict of interest: when a particular ad conflicts with the celebrity’s image, principles, interests etc., the Celebrity is totally money-minded, hence the ethical implications can be very serious.
- g. Akshay Kumar endorsed tobacco products and got backlashed for it later as he was against them.
- Override expert opinion: It is especially unethical when a celebrity endorsement overtakes the expert judgment. i.e. when he interjects his non-expert opinion he undermines the opinion of more qualified individuals.
- g Bollywood celebrities criticising recent judge’s remark on Nuppur Sharma case
