Selling Hopes

Whenever we see an advertisement, the first thought comes to our mind is whether it has any truth. Even a celebrity featuring in it hardly carries any weight, as we all know that a celebrity comes, takes his or her money and goes away, leaving us bewildered what to do.

The superstar Amitabh Bachchan for example, advertises for ornaments and then for pledging the same ornaments to get a loan. But more dangerous are endorsements by celebrities on edible items, medicines, cosmetics and financial matters, which may land us in real troubles, if they are really misleading.


From my childhood, I have seen people (now males also) using variants of whitening creams like Fair & Lovely and Glow & Lovely, but they are using only, irrespective of their efficacy, hoping against the hope.


Yes, HOPE, these advertisements don’t sell various products, they sell only one product, i.e. hope, by playing with emotions.

I think making false hopes should be penalised, whether it is an advertiser selling his products, or a politician making promises for winning election. They should be held accountable, if their claims go awry.

In this context, I like Swami Ramdev, who himself advertises for his Patanjali products. If something goes wrong, he is directly blamed, but it can’t be done in case of celebrities, who are selling various products without any authenticity.


It is high time to frame a policy, whereby the CEO or the promoter of the company manufacturing products should be made to advertise their own products. This will not help identify the key person making claims, but also save costs on advertising.

The cost of advertisement includes payment to the company designing ads, celebrity, as also to print, electronic or digital media, where ads are inserted. The overall cost is phenomenal.

No doubt, an ad is the best way to communicate to the customers, but it makes the product costlier and sometimes unaffordable, without any assurance to consumers.

It’s high time the government clamped down on advertisers and celebrities who made false claims to protect the interests of the gullible consumers.


–Kaushal Kishore