In the age of social media, people may have turned away from it, but the public announcements you make today are carved in stone. netizens Once you put it in the public domain, make sure you stay true to your word. And so, when a public person reneged on a promise, he is immediately called upon to do so.
Ajay Devgn says that whether big celebrities promote tobacco brands or not is his personal choice. We agree with this. If selling tobacco and gutka is legally permitted by the government, there can be nothing illegal or immoral about endorsing the same products. If the government collects tax from these products, then individuals also have the right to make their living from them. After all, in many cases, stars make more money from advertising than from their films. Protests attacking stars endorsing tobacco brands – demanding they be stripped of their national awards – are misguided, as are how the government can take back the respect awarded to something that is legally allowed. Has been?
Celebrities get in trouble when they take a public stand and then fail to honor their commitment. You cannot claim a high moral ground by declaring that you will never endorse tobacco or gutka brands, and then feel free to do exactly the same. And so, the three megastars to be a part of the surrogate tobacco ad featuring Elaichi – Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn and Akshay Kumar It was the only Akshay who was left holding the wrong end of the stick. While Shah Rukh and Ajay have never made any massive public statements about what they will or will not do, Akshay has not been so diplomatic. And this is the reason why Akshay, the lone of the three, finds himself in the midst of this crisis.
Netizens happily took out video clips of a press conference where Akshay announced that though he has innumerable offers of ‘unimaginable amounts’ to advertise tobacco brands, he would never do so as he upheld a ‘Swasth Bharat’. has kept!
While on Twitter it was a field day to ask Akshay
what happened to your promise’Akshay, a battered under Twitter attack, issued an apology at midnight. However, here he again became a victim of his own words. “…I do not and will not support tobacco…,” tweeted a suitably punished Akshay, who is still trying to regain his high position. In order not to be deceived, netizens immediately took out an old advertisement of Akshay endorsing a cigarette brand! This certainly triggered a meme fest on Twitter, with users asking the actor not to be true to his words. A Twitter user complained, “Since this is an honest announcement, I want Akki sir’s statement to be honest.” People also brought up the fact that though Akshay has declared himself against protein shakes, it hasn’t stopped him from advertising them.
Commenting on the apology, Twitter user Dr Swapnil tweeted, “Say whatever you want to say, but as long as those ads keep running, your reputation will continue to suffer.”
As part of the apology, Akshay wrote, “I have decided to contribute the entire support fee to a worthy cause.” Twitter users immediately questioned his motives, expressed regret that he did not return the money and blocked the ad from airing. One Twitter user said Uma Kanto, “Who are you fooling Khiladi Kumar? You have earned crores of rupees by promoting gutkha brand. Now who knows whether you donate it for some good cause or not!” Ankit Narayan Singh tweeted, “Ok. Please share the contract amount copy for this endorsement and then the receipt for social cause.”
Twitter questioned Akshay’s decision not to refund the money and allow the advertisements to be aired till the “legal period of the contract”. Kumar Dokania apparently asks, “Why don’t you cancel the contract and ask the brand to stop airing advertisements…” However, to be fair, it may not be that easy for Akshay to walk out of the contract. could. Apart from the legal implications there is a question of Shahrukh and Ajay Devgnwho are part of the same ad.
Readers will remember that last year on his birthday Amitabh Bachchan He had terminated his contract with a tobacco company within days of an advertisement promoting pan masala. He returned the amount and publicly announced that he was no longer their brand ambassador. But at that time Big B was the only star in that advertisement. This includes legal and ethical implications.
Twitter user Kunal Jain emotionally hits the nail on the head by saying, “Show biz is all about earning money. Approvals go a long way. Why lose it when you have worked so hard to build a career from the beginning! Then I saw your second video saying that you will not promote such products. It felt a little bad.”
And this is the crux of the problem. It’s not that Akshay Kumar has advertised for a tobacco brand, but that he made a coercive promise that he would never do it. The fact that in his apology he says “I do not and will not support tobacco” – and yet – he has done so in the past. All this does not bode well for his fans who are making it clear that they will not tolerate being led along for the ride. It is possible that a celebrity may have a different personal stance than the brand that he endorses, but the problem arises only when he has made his personal stance public. After all, the people who endorse a product don’t always use it personally.
It is clear that more than the actual product or advertisement, the issue has become that of a respected public figure who at times goes back on his words and loses the trust of his fans. You cannot promise one thing and do another – all public figures need to be careful with the promises they make in public!