Fifty-Fifty: Cricketers Endorsing Mutual Funds Sahi Hai?
This entire IPL, I have had Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Jasprit Bumrah and Shreyas Iyer telling me, “ … Mutual Funds sahi hai …” through a huge advertising campaign for AMFI, and I have been wondering how all these willow wonders are qualified in any which way to give me any advice on matters of financial investment or financial prudence. I am sure each one of them is a great cricketer, and were they to tell me anything or everything about googlies and yorkers, or pulls and hooks, I would gladly lap up their advice. But money matters are a different pitch.
If I were to go by the online bio-datas of all these famous cricketers, none of them except Shreyas Iyer even went to college. Most are school drop-outs. I have no quarrel with that. Playing cricket required them to exit the classroom at a very young age to pursue the game, and to perfect it. Which is commendable. But while playing cricket, how and where did these worthies learn about finance and investment?
I would surely have given Rohit Sharma an ear if he had said that he has earned crores of rupees as a cricketer and brand ambassador but since he is a risk averse and cautious investor, his financial advisors have advised him to keep his money in Mutual Funds. And he feels Mutual Funds are risk-cushioned and safe, hence sahi hai for him. A personal belief, not expert advice. Which would be a sensible and reasonable endorsement. But Rohit Sharma giving gyan on how not to go by past performance of Mutual Funds is an expert opinion, and he is in no way qualified to dispense that advice. Wonder why would the Association of Mutual funds in India get a cricketer with zero credentials to be its ‘expert’ on the goodness of their instruments?
The Jasprit Bumrah Mutual Funds ad is a little more credible. Atleast he talks of buying his mutual funds directly to avoid paying a broker fees. That is fair. It is transactional advice. Practical, and personal. So, no problems with that. But the MS Dhoni Mutual Funds ad on retirement is a strict no-no. Mahi states categorically that, “Retirement Plans ke liye Mutual Funds sahi hai”. If the new Consumer Protection Act had been enforced by now, Dhoni would be in serious trouble. Why? Because Dhoni’s advice is not universally true. Many Mutual Funds do perform badly, end up in negative territory, and erode the corpus of the retiree. Hence, Dhoni could be pulled up for giving advice without proper due diligence, and even misleading investors by hiding facts.
The moot point is why use cricketers to dispense advice on Mutual Funds? Do they have the expertise to give the advice in the first place? And what if consumers suffer a financial loss after heeding the advice?
The ready answers to my questions most likely will be that the Mutual Funds campaign has worked wonders. The cricketers have helped ‘massify’ mutual funds as a category. 50 lac new investors have been netted in a year. Yes, but you can’t, as a responsible industry body, be using rank amateurs as experts on a subject that could impact the lives and futures of lacs of individuals and families. The cricketers are highly esteemed, but they are just the wrong ‘experts’ to talk about Mutual funds and could end up misleading the lay public.
Similarly, the usage of Akshay Kumar as a chef in Fortune oil is a bit iffy. Yes, the Khiladi was once upon a time employed in a restaurant in Bangkok many moons ago. When he was Rajeev Bhatia. But does that make him a chef with expert advice to offer on cooking oils? No. As long as Fortune continues to use him as a superstar in conversation with army jawans, or gets him to encourage home chefs to work harder on their gastronomic output, he is playing a coach, a catalyst, a mentor. But the moment he were to cross the line and start dispensing advice on
the plusses of Fortune cooking oil, he would be donning the role of an ‘expert’. And, that would be inappropriate.
Which really brings some to the source credibility of celebrity ambassadors. A Raghuram Rajan or a Rakesh Jhunjhunwala would anyday have high credibility as endorsers of Mutual Funds. They are undeniably domain experts. No, to the target audience for Mutual Funds, they are not exactly unknown. They may not be as visible as MS Dhoni, but they are sufficiently well known to the right kind of potential and existing investors of mutual funds to carry off a good advertising campaign. And with the Rs. 200+ crores that AMFI spends on IPL alone, anyone would become familiar and famous. Of course, you could ask if Rajan or Jhunjhunwala don’t want to play brand ambassadors? Well, then the ad agency of AMFI (it is Wunderman Thompson, I think) needs to think through some other options who would have the stature, the domain expertise and the gravitas necessary for the category and product. The usage of Bumrah or Dhawan or Sharma is just the exercise of ‘lazy’ options.
What about Mr. Bachchan? After all in the recent TIARA Report of the Indian Institute of Human Brands (IIHB), he has been rated India’s Most Trustworthy. And India’s Most Respected. Well, at 78-years of age, Amitabh Bachchan undoubtedly has the stature. He stands tallest amongst all celebrities in India. And so immense, and all pervading is his popularity (and respect) that almost any brand gains instantly by associating with him. But sometimes even Mr. Bachchan really doesn’t work: like in the case of TVS. Yes, Mr. Bachchan tops on trustworthy and respect, but the cohorts of 16-25 years and 26-35 years respect him not as a role model, but as a grandfather. By featuring Mr. Bachchan in an ad for bikes (that too bikes that claim to race), the brand doesn’t gain anything much. In fact, it runs the risk of looking dowdy and old.
Square pegs in round holes don’t work. Period.
