Overexposure of Brand Ambassadors: Amitabh Bachchan sells Nerolac paints, Cadbury chocolates, Pepsi, Parker pens, Dabur Hajmola, Sahara homes, Reid and Taylor suits, Navratan oil, ICICI home loans, the list goes on.
Because of overexposure, these endorsements at best yank up the brand awareness for the initial duration. But after a point there ceases to be a congruity between the brand and the celebrity and the celebrity might lose his aura and become a commodity.

Brand Switching: If the same celebrity peddles two different competing brands then it confuses the consumer. It creates a negative image for all parties involved because the consumer feels cheated by the celebrity and the brands. For example when Aishwarya Rai and Aamir Khan shifted loyalties from Pepsi to Coke the transition was quite smooth because it took place after several years, long enough to fade away from public memory. But Ruby Bhatia endorsing Colgate and Close-up (she took up the Close-up assignment as soon as her Colgate contract expired) with both ads being on air simultaneously was probably one of the worst cases of brand switching

Tarnished Public Image: Since the celebrity embodies the values of the brand it is very important for the brand that the celebrity has a clean, non-controversial image. Eg: Pepsi has faced several problems with its celebrity endorsers in the past with Azharuddin, Jadeja getting involved in the match fixing scandal, Shane Warne in the drug case, Michael Jackson in the child molestation case etc. Thums up too had to scrap its ads after Salman Khan got embroiled in the black-buck case.

Reel Not Equal to Real: Companies are caught cold when their celebrity endorsers are caught on camera consuming competitor products. Michael. J. Fox, Britney Spears who are Pepsi endorsers have been spotted drinking Coke. Since the agreement between the celebrity and the company does not go beyond the commercial these celebrities do not practice what they preach in their ads.

Next

* Contributed by: -
Bikram Bindra & Kaushik Vijay. G,
Faculty of Management Studies,
University of Delhi, New Delhi.