Celebrities and Social Consciousness (Part-2)

Let us take the extreme example of Amitabh Bachan, who has quite literally made a Faustian bargain. He has been going around signing adds left, right and center.I am sure he does not mind the smell of tainted money. For those of you who don’t know Eveready batteries, which the actor endorses, is a subsidiary of Union Carbide, of Bhopal Gas Tragedy infamy. I was disgusted to see him endorsing the product in two successive young world issues. He seems willing to stoop to any level to build his already overflowing wealth. Other celebrities I am not judgmental of. Infact some of my favorite film personalities and sportsmen endorse some products like Coke or Pepsi. I just feel some of them don’t know, given their busy schedules how serious the violations-both environmental and humanitarian-caused by these companies are. It is the role of the media, socially aware citizens and NGO’s to bring this to their notice. Some of you might have seen a recent coke add on tv, that seems to say that, in India we don’t have water. But don’t worry coke is there even in such a place. As an Indian I feel insulted by this add. I also remember our teacher, Arun Anna, telling us in environmental science class, something that the Indian CEO of one of the colas said. Basically it was something to the effect of how in India the giant colas are not competing with each other, but with the guys who sell fresh fruit juices. They want to capture (and have probably done so substantially)that market. Several of our celebrities claimed that they wont directly or indirectly endorse alcohol or cigarette products, as it is unethical to do us. I want to bring it to their notice that some of the products they currently endorse are so dubious, that it would be better to campaign for alcohol or cigarette companies. Somebody told me that Mr.Bachan may not be aware of what Eveready represents. I think that is a whole lot of B S.In this age of information explosion all someone needs to do is a google search to find out the track record of what they are considering endorsing.So an attitude of not knowing is willful negligence. Ps-Amitabh Bachan is an exception and as mentioned above an extreme example. I still have faith in our celebrities. I am nobody to judge them and some of them are very nice people. All of us take time to figure things out. I can only hope our stars do that, regarding what they promote, sooner than later. As I mentioned in the first part of this article some of them contribute to society in some way or other.