It's been over 14 years when Pierce Brosnan passed on the baton of iconic James Bond to Daniel Craig.
Given his suave demeanours and elegant looks, it would have been impossible for us to imagine that Brosnan would ever advertise for a pan masala brand.
But Things appears to have quite changed for the Hollywood actor. Brosnan has been roped in for the face of pan masala brand Pan Bahar.
The last most Indians saw Pierce Brosnan on screen was in his 2002 release Die Another Day but today they woke up to see his face on the front pages of leading newspapers of the country.
The brand film created by DDB Mudra has also been released which shows Pierce doing stunts like Bond. Only this time he performed them with a tin pack of Pan Bahar. Pan Bahar is owned by DJ Group, having interests in hospitality, IT, healthcare and FMCG sectors.
A sizable, but undisclosed amount has reportedly been spent to get the actor – who was once seen endorsing luxury watch brand Omega – on board.
The 63-year-old actor, however, will promote the mouth freshener sold under the Pan Bahar range of products. Once the face of the James Bond series, Brosnan is bound to strengthen the brand in the highly competitive premium Gutaka segment.
Market pundits expect Brosnan’s entry to give a fresh lease of life to the Pan Bahar range of products that includes Gutaka. Besides, it would place the brand above the nearest competition in the segment -- Rajnigandha, owned by DS group, as far as celebrity endorsements are concerned.
Actress Priyanka Chopra, who hit international headlines for the second season of TV series Quantico, is the face of ‘Rajnigandha’. Chopra, who is the highest paid actress in India as per Forbes magazine, endorses Rajnigandha pearls.
Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan, interestingly, was the brand ambassador of the product earlier. Khan once played a character close to James Bond in the movie Agent Vinod. The movie didn’t do well at the box office.
A teaser of the ambitious campaign featuring Brosnan began on October 1 and TV commercials were launched five days later.
Moving away from the money spent and how the commercials will roll out, this tie up with Pierce is bound to change the way people view Gutaka brands in India. The first reaction would obviously be that the change is because a Hollywood star is endorsing a pan masala brand, but that isn’t the only reason.
Notably, celebrities have endorsed these brands in the past but the scale has never been this vast. Actor Akshay Kumar endorses ‘Baba Elaichi’ again the mouth freshener version of the pan masala brand. Actors Ajay Devgn and Arbaaz Khan are among the ones who endorse pan masalas.
Pan Bahar is the probably the second Indian brand to bring a Hollywood star as their face; the first one being Micromax which has Hugh Jackman as its brand ambassador. One may argue that Tata Motors has Lionel Messi as the brand ambassador of their car Tiago. But then, Tata is not restricted to be an Indian company, it has grown to be an MNC. Also, Jackie Chan in 2004 did a commercial for Bajaj Discover. However, the company refused of Chan being there brand ambassador.
