Sept 14: He has been voted as the Superstar of the Millennium, easing out giants like Sir Lawrence Olivier and Charlie Chaplin on a BBC on-line poll. He himself qualifies perhaps as one of India’s best known brands or brand ambassadors.
And increasingly, big advertisers are trying to rope in Amitabh Bachchan to lend a semblance of credibility to their products. After companies as diverse as ICICI, Nerolac Paints, Reid & Taylor, PepsiCo and Parker Pens, he is now being wooed by Dabur India. According to industry sources, the latter is set to sign a deal with Bachchan for endorsement of the Dabur brand.

He is being roped in to endorse the brand Dabur by the company. The sources revealed that the contract will be signed for around Rs 8 crore for two years. Dabur India recently restructured its product portfolio. The company has identified five power brands Dabur, Vatika, Hajmola, Real and Anmol. While the brand Dabur comprises healthcare products, Vatika has been assigned all personal-care products, Hajmola is now representative of digestive brands and Anmol has all value-for-money products under its umbrella.

Sources revealed that creative director of McCann Erickson Prasoon Joshi of Thanda-Matlab-Coca-Cola-fame is supervising the new initiative. Incidentally, Bollywood actress Karishma Kapoor is already brand ambassador for Dabur Amla hair oil.

Company sources said that though Dabur products were well-known, they all had a diffused identity because of the disparate advertising. “The products were being advertised individually. There was no coherent brand building effort. The company, for long, had been thinking of establishing Dabur as a brand,” the source said.

The company spokesperson, however, when contacted offered “no comments” on the development.
Bachchan, at present, is among the highest paid brand ambassadors in the market. According to sources, while Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan, the other two popular faces, charge anything between Rs 2.5 crore and Rs 4 crore, Bachchan certainly is way ahead of them.


A recent study conducted by IMRB on celebrity endorsements revealed that Bachchan found favour to endorse credence products like insurance and banking. He was found to be fit for the products that needed a jump-start in their categories.
Said B Narayanswamy, executive director, IMRB, “Amitabh Bachchan is a multi-dimensional personality. Besides credibility, he has a range of positive

association factors working for him, instant brand recognition being the most important one. His name has also proved beneficial for those brands that needed an immediate connect with consumers.”