Why celebrity advertising needs narrative depth

The advertising industry is witnessing a fundamental shift in how celebrity endorsements are being crafted. What was once an art of weaving stars into compelling narratives has gradually become a templated exercise in visibility. The format has calcified into a rhythm so familiar that audiences can predict the beats before they play out. A high-profile entrance, a carefully timed music cue, a fleeting interaction with the product, and a neat logo sign-off.

While this approach can generate visibility and short-term attention, its ability to create lasting brand recall and meaningful differentiation is increasingly open to question.

A key question facing creative leaders in Indian advertising is whether the growing focus on attention-optimised celebrity campaigns may be coming at the expense of long-term brand equity. More importantly, it raises the issue of whether the industry is prepared to recalibrate its approach before the format becomes overly standardised and less effective in building enduring brand value.

From protagonists to props

"I do believe celebrity advertising today is optimising heavily for attention and speed rather than for memory," says Ambika Sharma, Founder and Chief Strategist at Pulp Strategy. "Attention is rented in seconds. Memory is built through narrative tension, character, and emotional payoff. When celebrities are used as billboards instead of protagonists, the brand borrows fame but does not build equity."

The diagnosis is clear. Celebrities today function more as garnish than as ingredients. They amplify reach but rarely amplify meaning. The template-led approach might generate instant buzz, social shares, and media coverage, but it leaves little residue in the consumer's mind once the scroll moves on. What's missing is the screenplay, the dramatic arc, the emotional architecture that transforms a celebrity appearance into a brand-defining moment.

Moumita Pal, National Creative Director at Dentsu Creative Webchutney, observes that the digital ecosystem's hunger for short-form content and algorithmic visibility has accelerated this shift. "A big-name celebrity can generate instant buzz, social shares, and media coverage, but that doesn't always translate into lasting brand recall or meaningful brand association," she notes. The format optimises beautifully for the first three seconds. What happens after that is where brands are losing the plot.

According to a 2024 report by Pitch Madison Advertising, celebrity endorsement spending in India crossed Rs 2,800 crore, up from Rs 2,200 crore in 2022. Yet brand recall metrics haven't moved proportionally. Data from the Brand Equity Survey 2024 shows that while celebrity-endorsed brands enjoy 23% higher initial awareness, their sustained recall after six months drops sharply compared to brands built on consistent narrative campaigns. The numbers suggest that fame is being rented, not compounded.

When stars became characters

There was a time when celebrities were integrated more deeply into brand narratives, inhabiting distinct brand worlds rather than simply appearing as endorsers. These executions often resembled short films, where the product emerged organically within the storyline, serving as a natural resolution rather than a brief, standalone insertion.

"Vodafone in its glory days did lovely work with Irrfan Khan," recalls Nakul Sharma, Senior Vice President and Executive Creative Director at VML India. "The brand and the celeb were both simple, straight and classy. The client used Irrfan's matter-of-fact style and merged it seamlessly with the uncomplicated nature of Vodafone. For three years running, Irrfan and Vodafone would join hands and, in a truly clutter-breaking way, make a point about its offers."

What made the Vodafone-Irrfan partnership memorable wasn't just consistency. It was tone. The ads had rhythm, understatement, and a kind of conversational intelligence that treated viewers as people, not targets. Irrfan wasn't performing a brand. He was embodying a sensibility that Vodafone wanted to own. That's the difference between being featured and being woven in.

Sharma from Pulp Strategy points to the long-running Fevicol campaigns as another example of storytelling triumphing over stardom. "The celebrity did not overpower the brand. The screenplay did the heavy lifting. The humour, timing, and situational exaggeration created recall far beyond the individual face," she explains. Whether it was a Bollywood actor or a cricket star, the Fevicol narrative had a life of its own. The celebrity amplified it but didn't substitute for it.

Similarly, the early Cadbury Dairy Milk campaigns featuring Amitabh Bachchan worked because his presence elevated an emotional arc rather than replacing it. The pauses mattered. The silences carried weight. The product became part of a human moment, not a commercial obligation.

The new wave and what it's getting right

Not all contemporary celebrity advertising has abandoned the story. Some brands are finding ways to make stars feel integral rather than ornamental.

Pal from Dentsu Creative Webchutney highlights recent successes. "Campaigns like Aamir Khan's iconic 'Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola', and Shah Rukh Khan's long-running association with Pepsi are great examples of celebrity partnerships that went beyond visibility and built strong brand memory," she says. More recently, she points to Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt's work for MakeMyTrip, Rahul Dravid's now-legendary CRED campaign, and Dream11's clever use of the 3 Idiots cast alongside cricket stars as examples of narrative-led celebrity advertising done right.

What unites these campaigns is simple: the celebrities weren't just endorsing. They were performing. They inhabited scenarios that felt entertaining, believable, and aligned with the brand's personality. CRED didn't just buy Rahul Dravid's face. It bought into the cultural tension between his calm image and the chaotic world the brand was building. That tension became the story.

Yasin Hamidani, Director at Media Care Brand Solutions, a Mumbai-based media consultancy working with brands like Tata and Reliance Retail, cites the Shah Rukh Khan-Cadbury Dairy Milk collaborations as a gold standard. "What made it work was the screenplay—the pauses, the emotion, and the way the product amplified a human moment. The celebrity elevated the narrative instead of replacing it, which is why the brand stayed memorable long after the ad ended."

The cost of shortcuts

The template-led approach is not only creatively limiting; it can also be strategically risky. When brands rotate celebrities from one campaign to the next, it may suggest that the individual is more important than the underlying idea. Audiences are quick to recognise this dynamic.

"The fact that celebs are changing from one campaign to another is proof of this phenomena," says Sharma from VML India. "At times, the celeb is an afterthought. Almost like a garnishing to attract eyeballs. Ultimately, I see this dying out. There is just no substitute for good old consistency and hammering away with the same celeb face."

According to a global study by Nielsen, brands that sustain long-term celebrity partnerships achieve a 34% higher brand affinity score than those that change endorsers frequently. In India, where brand loyalty remains highly personal, such consistency is particularly important. Yet the pressure to remain visible in an algorithm-driven media landscape often encourages brands to prioritise short-term gains over patient, long-term brand building.

Pal from Dentsu Creative Webchutney believes the industry is at an inflexion point. "There's a growing realisation among creative teams and marketing partners that superficial celebrity placement, mere lip service, is no longer effective. Audiences are far more discerning today. They can quickly sense when a celebrity endorsement feels forced, transactional, or disconnected from the brand's core values."

Bringing back the screenplay

So how can brands and agencies reverse this trend? The key is to treat celebrities as storytellers, not just promotional vehicles. Achieving this demands patience, strategic conviction, and a commitment to investing in narrative craft rather than chasing purely algorithm-driven reach.

First, brands should give celebrities roles to inhabit, rather than merely products to display. This involves crafting scenes with conflict, resolution, and emotional stakes. It means allowing pauses, building tension, and letting the product appear organically as part of the story’s climax.

Second, consistency matters more than frequency. A carefully developed campaign arc featuring the same celebrity over several years will always outperform a series of disconnected one-off ads. The Vodafone-Irrfan Khan collaboration illustrates this, as does Cadbury’s long-standing association with Amitabh Bachchan.

Third, authenticity cannot be faked. "For celebrity-led advertising to truly work, the role has to be believable. The celebrity must embody a relatable stance and integrate naturally into the brand's narrative," says Pal. Campaigns succeed when the fit feels organic rather than manufactured, as seen when Ranveer Singh brings his energy to MakeMyTrip, or when Jackie Shroff and Tiger Shroff share the screen for Uber.

The balance Sharma from Pulp Strategy calls for is achievable. "The brands that will win long term are the ones that treat celebrities as actors inside an idea, not as the idea itself." That shift from billboard to protagonist, from garnish to ingredient, is what separates brand building from brand renting.

Celebrity advertising isn’t broken, but it is being underutilised. The faces remain recognisable, yet the stories have grown thin. In an era where consumers seek meaning as much as entertainment, this is the gap agencies must address, not with louder music cues or more spectacular entrances, but with stronger writing, precise dramatic timing, and the confidence to let celebrities fade into narratives that are truly memorable.