By: Amit Kumar Agarwal
The recent week saw too much hullabaloo over Akshay Kumar doing a supposed gutkha tobacco ad. The question is, did he really do a tobacco ad in the first place?
For starters that jumped on the bandwagon, they probably didn't even see the ad, the ad doesn't endorse tobacco use, instead it clearly shows cardamom, so why & where did the people see tobacco in it? Their wild imagination, of course. Many companies manufacture diverse product-lines; as long as product endorsed is safe to consume, there should be no problem, here the product is clearly shown, cardamom.
It is indeed interesting that while, Ajay or Shahrukh got away with the endorsement, Akshay Kumar was called out for it. Why? Does the smear campaign have political connotations.
Anyways, Akshay too disassociated himself from the brand like Bachchan did in the recent past from another brand. Point is, ONE: users that went overboard on social media, will they hail this act of Akshay Kumar. TWO: will such users stop seeing Ajay and Shahrukh movies. These two are still endorsing the brand!
No wonder, few south-asians are called out for their hypocrisy worldwide. As for entertainment industry, it is the most hypocritical industry in the world and it is no secret.