Celebrity ads: Have they responsibilities?

It is as if there is no limit to the greed of celebrities. I can easily understand if an actress  endorses a cosmetic in a commercial. Aishwarya Rai can say her beauty is all  because of Lux soap,and a sensible person can ask which soap she was using before she became Miss World,because that soap would have given her the complexion to win the pageant.!(In fact,no soaps give you complexion!). Actor Sidhique endorsing a wig is quite understandable as well. But some of these stars appear in advertisements of products which are  newly launched,and endorses their whole beauty and hair growth of their lifetime, to that product. People love their celebrities and advertisers love their power to sell virtually anything: makeup, clothes, sports drinks, junk foods, and even remedies for irritable bowel syndrome, obesity and impotence.

If you watch  the TV programme for an hour,the chances are that you will see most of your favourite stars endorsing some kind of  product or other.A superstar has been vouching for an asthma remedy from its inception. There is no way to know if  it is  sold as a  medicine,because I have seen it being sold it in supermarkets.And there are no ways to know its efficacy,because there are no studies..He also endorses pickles and puttupodi  and  gives his assurance for these products.May be, he has culinary skills yet undisclosed.Most of the actresses sell one kind of hair oil or other.And the most recent additions  are "thailoms" to reduce weight and come to shape.
Just apply it and your body will come to shape!  Simple!
An anchor at a popular reality programme is selling wall care putties and a new "thailom" to shape the body.And this is at a time when billions are being sent on researches all over the world to find a remedy for asthma and also  remedies to fight obesity.Advertisements for liver care products are too many. I remember having seen one of our popular heroines trying to endorse a remedy for liver diseases.And the ad says......If liver is safe.life is safe!! As if you  needed only your liver  for life. Heart..and kidney, brain,bones and blood......they are all things of the past.Only our ancestors needed those for life! Some friends tell me that all drunkards are taking this product  to protect liver and continue drinking. This is an example of how ads try to  alter your understanding of diseases.Herbal products appear to be the ones using celebrities for promotions most.When one product starts selling..there comes  remedies for all common ailments one after another, and the "inventor" is just basking in his glory and happiness over his contributions to the world of medicine!!

The concern is about what these campaigns can do to a person's understanding about a disease, not just a drug.

Do these celebrities have some thing called conscience and a moral responsibility?Will they give these medicines they endorse to their own children? Will they be using  any of those products on themselves or secretly go and see a doctor and take treatment for their illness? Arent they responsible and answerable for their recommendations?At times when stars are charging crores  of rupees for a movie, enough isnt enough?Stars like Tendulkar endorse food products and soft drinks,which are not considered the ideal for children.Other Hindi movie stars have been endorsing anything from undergarments to cars and insurance.

Sometimes, the products they choose to endorse might not even exist, outside  the imagination of the fraud promoters. Dont u remember the company called Home Trade?And their ad... Life means more.... Sachin, Hrithik and Shah Rukh,  enthusiastically plugged its indefinable and entirely mysterious `product'. More than just defrauding the Nagpur Cooperative Bank, and cheating millions of small investors out of their lifetime earnings,  they sold something they neither believed in, nor had any proof even existed.  So the question that begs an answer is,  why do the celebrities endorse products they dont  even know any thing about?What you call it other than greed?

I think, the so called literate and intellegent society of Kerala,who are very much aware of their rights and revolt for each and every thing possible, should ask themselves ten times, before listening to their favourite celebrities in matters regarding personal health,and also in what to buy and what not.I wish if everyone followed a simple principle..... Recommend only those products they would buy and use themselves, and would give to their own wives and children,if they had the same problems...Easy solution..isnt it?