Finally, real supari for James Bond

New Delhi: A can of Pan Bahar has replaced secret agent 007's Walther PPK. Hollywood actor Pierce Brosnan, who has acted in four James Bond movies, has become the new face of the pan masala brand, peddling a product many doctors consider only slightly less harmful than its poorer cousin, gutkha. Those behind the ad campaign indicated that they got Brosnan to sell their "mouth freshener" to try and make a splash and earn their product new respectability. In the blizzard of jokes that buffeted social media, not too much attention was paid to one question: what if more Hollywood actors - ageing and not-so-ageing - look for brand endorsement opportunities in India? What will it mean for the Bollywood brigade that makes most of its money by selling products? While the pan masala print ad, splashed across several dailies on Friday, shows Brosnan posing with a Pan Bahar can instead of a gun, the TV ad has all the trappings of a Bond film - a sports car, smartly dressed men, gorgeous women and stunts. Shot in Austin, Texas, it shows the 63-year-old actor beating back enemies with a tin of Pan Bahar. It ends with the tag line: "Pan Bahar -- Class never goes out of style." "We had Bollywood actors like Saif Ali Khan promoting our brand, but this time we thought of going international to enhance our product's appeal and make it look classy," said Akhil Jain, CEO with Ashoka and Company, the manufacturer and a subsidiary of the DJ Group. "It's an elitist viewpoint that pan masala is a pedestrian product: people sitting in corporate boardrooms consume it too," said Sambit Mohanty, creative head of ad agency DDB Mudra North, which prepared the campaign. "Our idea is to bring respectability to the product and bring it out of pockets and onto the table. It turned out to be very easy to get Brosnan: he readily agreed to promote the brand." Brosnan's UK-based agent, Rose Parkinson, had till last night not answered an email seeking comments. The Irish actor had earlier endorsed a fabric brand with an Indian connection, Reid and Taylor, but whose roots are Scottish. "We wanted a strong, mature and stylish face. With the response we have received with the launch of the ad campaign, I think we made a very good choice," Jain said. Many social media users, though, trolled the pan masala ad with jokes, memes and photo-shopped images of the front-page ads, some showing Brosnan with a pan-stained white beard. "Can advertising and brand experts tell us if going viral but becoming a laughing stock is a good brand 'strategy'?#PanBahar," tweeted cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle. Writer and journalist Sadanand Dhume posted a tweet with a video link to the TV commercial: "In case you were wondering what happens to James Bond after he retires. Hint: It's not a happy story." Some brand strategists were cautious in assessing the ad's possible impact. "Getting Brosnan may have generated a lot of attention but the comments on the social media have mostly been negative or have expressed surprise," said ad maker and brand expert Santosh Desai. "Only time will tell if drafting in a Hollywood actor will be worth the money." Health activists chided the company for getting a global celebrity to endorse a "potentially harmful" brand. "While pan masala brands sell themselves as zero-tobacco products, they have areca nut and some other ingredients that are thought to be carcinogenic. Therefore, no sensible celebrity should endorse them," said Monika Arora, director of the health promotion and tobacco control division at the Public Health Foundation of India. "We have appealed to Bollywood actors in the past not to endorse these products. It is unfortunate that an internationally recognised face will now promote a pan masala product." Jain would not say how much the company had spent on its one-year agreement with Brosnan to promote the brand, whose turnover is Rs 230 crore. -The Telegraph, Calcutta