Gujarat tourism was pro bono so why is Big B fleecing DD Kisan channel of Rs 6.3 cr?

On 17 July, 2015, the media was abuzz with the news that Prasar Bharti, which runs bouquet of Doordarshan channels including the recently launched kisan channels, had paid Amitabh Bachchan, the matinee idol of yesteryears, a whopping Rs 6.30 crore for being the brand ambassador of the Kisan channels.

It is not the first time he has pocketed such a huge sum for his services but the indignation was at the fact that the payment had been made from public money. Cadbury or Nestle paying him in crores of rupees had been a talking point in the past but nothing more because if the managements and shareholders of these companies thought nothing of it, why should the public?  Prasar Bharti may have been carved out into a separate corporation but it operates out of public money. The anger is therefore justified.

A year or so ago, Prime Minister Narender Modi told the viewers of television that the Gujarat Tourism did not pay him anything for being its brand ambassador. In other words, he did the job pro bono. If he had such a large heart, why did he fleece another government instrumentality given the fact that the nascent channels’ budget is a tiny fraction of what has been paid to him. In fact, the question should be addressed to Prasar Bharti.

In every financial walk of life, one makes a bang for bucks calculation. In the advertising world, this is known as A to S ratio i.e. advertising to sales ratio. More scientifically it should be the incremental sales as a result of the ad spend. It is impossible to find out how much of the incremental sale was on account of the fortune paid to a celebrity given the fact that sale is after all a function of so many diverse factors like price, quality, competition, lack of substitute etc including saturation advertising. That being the case, the A to S ratio is at best an unscientific and crude measure of an ad’s success. Be that as it may.

And when it comes to measuring the heightened farmers’ consciousness thanks to Big B’s exhortation, one would be virtually up against the wall because being a public interest broadcast, there is no revenue involved. At a sentimental level, devoid of financial calculations, it is said Amitabh is heard with rapt attention by everyone in this country, young and old alike, because of his affability and baritone he is endowed with.

So much so he can sell noodles, sway the farmers and their reluctant sons, launch a car successfully and root for our kabbaddi team. If listening is indeed the issue, people listen to Prime Minister Modi with rapt and worshipful attention given that he is a demagogue and pedagogue rolled into one.

After all he was the one man army that ran over the opposition in the 2014 general elections. To be sure, he cannot endorse commercial brands but this one is an awareness campaign targeting the blighted farmers.

I understand the American advertising standard at some point of time proscribed celebrities from promiscuously endorsing more than one brand at a time. It is time we did the same in our country lest Amitabh fatigue sets in if it hasn’t already. He may remember all the brands he endorses but the viewers are simply bamboozled by his all pervasive presence during the commercial breaks so much so that they remember him and forget the brand as humorously but pertinently pointed out by the ad guru Ogilvy while holding forth on the dangers of celebrity advertising.

Kisan channel is not a product or service amenable to pester power either, a factor that goes into roping in a celebrity. Children insist on a soft drink endorsed by say the cricketer Tendulkar but neither the product/service nor the age of the target audience of kisan channels justify the roping in of the superstar for such an outrageous sum.

To be sure, a celebrity plays and sticks to the script but the insincerity and superficiality of his utterances are not lost on everyone. The opposition may not gun for the Modi government on this issue given that the superstar of yesteryears is a master of hiding his political affiliation and hobnobs with everyone who matters.