Advertising carries several responsibilities. Advertising informs the public so that they can be aware of products and make informed choices among different products or brands. Advertising also benefits businesses in assisting them to sell their products. But while dispensing its role as a dream merchant, advertising has also been in the vortex of controversy of the many ills that it brings to society. It is accused of encouraging materialism and consumption, of stereotyping, of causing us to purchase items for which we have no need, of taking advantage of children, of manipulating our behavior, using sex to sell, and generally contributing to the downfall of our social system. Advertising does not function in a vacuum but in a market environment where several forces like consumer needs, business interests and government regulations are at work. It is a powerful force in terms of its persuasiveness and functions a critical social role. Moreover the high visibility and pervasiveness, it generates criticism and controversy. Much of this controversy springs from the fact that advertising is used more as a persuasive communication tool thereby creating serious impact on the tastes, values and lifestyles of society.

In order to bank on the mass appeal of celebrities companies are using celebrities across all industry categories including 'The Dark' product categories- Categories of Branded products that harm health namely gutka, liquor, tobacco and allied segments. These products do have a right to their share of sunshine as they are the highest taxed sectors of Indian Economy. Since 'Cable TV Regulation Act' prohibits the airing of Liquor and tobacco advertisements on the Television channels, surrogate ads, a phenomenon of duplicating the brand image of one product extensively to promote another product of the same brand, is used. The barons have intentionally blurred the line between products, advertising “old wine in a new bottle”, only this time with a mineral bottle label.

India is the 4th largest liquor consuming country and studies have revealed that celebrity advertisements have a direct influence on the consumption habits of 431 million Indians and an indirect impact on 275 million 'aspirants' from lower income group, the hidden call for alcohol consumption by way of surrogate advertisements is beating the very purpose of banning liquor and its advertisements.

Since the celebrities have the power to influence the lives of many young people, therefore it becomes vital to study as to how people react to the surrogate advertisements by celebrities. This study proposes to evaluate the effects of surrogate advertisements by celebrities on Brand recognition, product recognition and buying intentions of consumers.

Research conducted by social psychologists over the past 30 years demonstrates that a source perceived as highly credible is more persuasive than a low credibility sender. This is also reflected in the source credibility model, which contends that the effectiveness of a message depends on perceived level of attractiveness, expertise and trustworthiness of endorser. Information from a credible source can influence beliefs, opinions, attitudes and behaviour through a process called internalization, which occurs when receivers accept a source influence in terms of their personal attitude and value structures. Further research indicates that if consumers perceive the source as trustworthy and as an expert in the products, which it endorses, consumers are likely to purchase the product. Since higher levels of source credibility tend to be associated with more positive attitudes toward the message and lead to behavioral changes, advertisers will opt to use celebrities if they think that they have a high level of credibility. Advertising is the manner in which consumers become educated in a persuasive and elusive manner about the various products that corporations and other types of businesses have to offer. Advertising that can arouse feelings, create liking, stir desire, or persuade convincingly can have a greater impact on the consumer, generating sales for that product (Kim, 1992). Since, the consumers of today live in a media saturated and product cluttered environment, advertisers must be careful not to confuse the consumer. The greater the number of competing brands advertised in a product category, the greater the likelihood that the target brand and its advertised attributes will be either confused with other product information or simply passed over (Keller, Heckler, & Houston, 1998).

According to Friedman and Friedman (1979, p. 63) a “celebrity endorser is an individual who is known by the public for his or her achievements in areas other than that of the product class endorsed”. Researchers have identified three components as making up the credibility construct of an endorser: expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness. Source credibility could be said to be qualities that determine the total character and perceived experience of the persuasive source. It is important to note that sources have various dimensions of credibility. Hovland, (1953) analyzed the factors leading to the perceived credibility of the communicator and concluded that source credibility consisted of two factors: expertise and trustworthiness. Most Western studies with source credibility often see expertise and trustworthiness as more important components of the credibility of a source than others. According to Hovland et al. (1953), source credibility is the level of expertise and trustworthiness consumers attribute to the source of the message. Expertise can be described as trained, experienced, authoritative, skillful, able, intelligent, and informed. In addition, “expertise refers to how knowledgeable or competent the audience perceives the speaker to be on the topic”.

Trustworthiness refers to the receiver's confidence in the communicator for offering information in an honest and objective manner it is defined as “the degree to which the audience believes the communicator is honest or sincere in the statements made”. A trustworthy person can be described as kind, friendly, warm, congenial, agreeable, gentle, pleasant, unselfish, fair, just forgiving, hospitable, sociable, ethical, calm, and patient. Researchers examined the influence of source trustworthiness on the persuasiveness of the communication. Their findings indicated that when the perceived trustworthiness of a source was high, an opinionated message was more effective than a non-opinionated communication in producing attitude change.

The third dimension of credibility is attractiveness which is considered to be an important cue to an individual's first impression and judgment of another person. The effectiveness of source attractiveness has been demonstrated by many researchers. A source's physical attractiveness enhances brand recall and has a positive impact on advertising and product evaluation and opinion change and it also helps in generating purchase intentions.

Thus it can be said that distinguishing the effects of the three source credibility components is not always possible, but the credibility components become cues that significantly affect receivers' perceptions of the endorsed product or advertising. Thus, the three components of source credibility are important variables for evaluating endorsers' effects. In addition, it is believed that celebrity endorsement strategy is effective in selling products, and services as status symbols since celebrities are individuals of indisputably high status and in endorsements. According to Woodside and Taylor (1978), consumers related higher quality products with more heavily advertised products. Purchase intentions were also associated with higher quality nationally, advertised products. They found that advertising may influence the perception of quality in consumers' minds, which in turn may affect their purchase behavior (Woodside & Taylor, 1978). This may be said to be a reason why these dark category product manufacturers are so keen to advertise their products. The use of celebrity spokespersons help advertisers to stand out from the crowd and get attention (Kaikati 1987). A main aim of advertising is the persuasion of customers and familiarity of a celebrity endorser make the advertisement distinctive and thus improve the communicative ability (Atkin and Block 1983; Sherman 1985). Research has also found an impact of celebrity image on perceived brand image (Walker et al 1992) which helps the marketer to re-position an existing brand or design or introduce the new brand (Kaikati 1987). Nonetheless, “even though research findings are equivocal about the ability of celebrities to stimulate actual purchase behavior, the positive impact of celebrity endorsers is well documented” (Erdogan & Kitchen 1998 p. 17).

Celebrity endorsement research has gone through several phases of discovery since its beginnings. Prior to 1980, celebrity endorsements were examined in a favorable light. Much of the celebrity research conducted was concentrated on how well the celebrity advertisement performed against other forms of advertising (Wheeler, 2003). Freeman's 1957 study, based on Starch readership studies, which measure readership, reader interest and reader reactions to advertising content,examined the number of celebrity advertisements consumers view versus other types of advertisements. During this period there was also a focus on the quantity of celebrity advertisements and the effectiveness of those advertisements. Dicther (1966) studied purchases that resulted from word of mouth as a direct result of celebrity advertisement, and Aaker and Myers (1975) concentrated on the effectiveness of celebrities in low risk purchases. Freidman and Freidman (1979) found that celebrities and experts produced more favorable attitudes toward products than other types of endorsers. In the early 1980s the research on the effectiveness of celebrity advertising that had been builtup prior to 1980 was questioned (Wheeler, 2003). While some studies indicated that there was a measurable value in using a celebrity, other researchers demonstrated that only a small percentage of celebrity advertisements measured higher on recall. Almost half did not measure up to the average advertisement on recall.

Product advertising for liquor and cigarette companies is banned in the country since 1995 by Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act. According to Rule 7 (2) of the Act, no broadcaster is permitted to show advertisement which promotes directly or indirectly promotion, sale or consumption of cigarettes, tobacco products, wine, alcohol, liquor or other intoxicants, infant milk substitution, feeding bottle or infant food. A market survey in 2001 revealed that advertising has a direct influence on the consumption habits of 431 million people in India and an indirect impact on 275 million `aspirants' from the lower income group. Nearly 50 per cent of the television owners have access to cable channels. Advertising is an inescapable part of our lives in fact it is through advertisements that we are being influenced and manipulated far more than we realize. Large scale efforts are being made, often with impressive success, to channel our unthinking habits, our purchasing decisions, and our thought processes by the use of novice innovative advertisements and surrogate advertisements is one of them.

A surrogate advertisements is one in which a different product is promoted using an already established brand name. Such advertisements or sponsorships help in contribute to brand recall. The different product shown in the advertisement is called the “Surrogate.” It could either resemble the original product or could be a different product altogether, but using the established brand of the original product. The sponsoring of sports/cultural/leisure events and activities also falls under the purview of surrogate advertising. There is no doubt that the hidden call for alcohol consumption behind the surrogate advertisements and it is not escaping the eyes of viewers in the world's fourth highest liquor-consuming country. The very purpose of banning liquor advertisements is defeated by surrogate advertising.

According to a study conducted in India by NIMHANS, kids as young as 19 are today taking to alcohol. The age just a few years back was 27. The study warns that in the next few years, children aged 15 years will take up drinking. As per the international medical journal 'The Lancet', alcohol causes almost as many deaths and disabilities globally as smoking or high blood pressure. Truly the situation is dangerous! Taking note of the seriousness of the matter and consequent ill effects of cigarette, alcohol and other intoxicants on consumers, the Indian government has banned advertisements of these products in the media. But the wise marketers have come out with alternatives, one of which is surrogate advertisements. These advertisements violate the statutory provisions and defeat the very purpose of the ban which has been imposed.

In India, the trend of surrogate advertisement gathered momentum with the Cable TV Network Regulation Act, which prohibits tobacco and liquor advertisements on TV channels. The liquor industry has intentionally blurred the line between products, advertising `old wine' in a `new bottle,' only this time with a soft-drink label. Liquor producers spent heavily on advertising on the electronic media, particularly TV. Though the broadcasters were bound by the 30 yrs old advertising code, which stated that “No advertisements shall be permitted which relates to or promotes cigarettes and tobacco products, liquor, wines and other intoxicants,” the telecast of such product continued blatantly over the years. More over the satellite channels garnered about 50% of their revenue from liquor and cigarettes advertisements. In the peak season it gets almost doubled.

A study conducted by a Mumbai-based NGO, Salaam Bombay Foundation, exposed the stronghold of tobacco advertising on the minds of Mumbai teenagers. The study “Cancer of the mind” questioned 3260 children in the age group of 12-17 years from 15 municipal and private schools to assess the recall of tobacco advertising among these youngsters. The findings revealed that 77% of the children recalled a gutka/paan masala advertisement, 17% remembered a raw tobacco advertisement and only 4% recalled a cigarette advertisement. Over 70% of the children actually recalled the slogan of the advertisement such as Manikchand gutka. This study clearly demonstrates how direct and indirect advertisements impact young minds, and how strong is the identification with brands and catchy slogans used in these advertisements.

In June 2002, the Indian Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry served notices to leading television broadcasters to ban the telecast of two surrogate ads of liquor brands McDowell No.1 and Gilbey's Green Label. The Ministry also put some other brands namely Smirnoff Vodka, Hayward's 5000, Royal Challenge Whiskey and kingfisher beer on a “watch list.” The surrogates used by these advertisements ranged from audiocassettes, CDs, perfumes to golf accessories and mineral water. By August 2002, the I&B Ministr y had banned 12 advertisements and leading satellite TV channels including Zee, Sony, STAR and Aaj Tak were issued show cause notices to explain their rationale behind carrying surrogate liquor advertisements. Answering to the notices, Zee and STAR stopped telecasting the advertisements, followed soon by Aaj Tak and Sony. In addition, I&B Ministry hired a private monitoring agency to keep a watch on all the advertisements for violation of the Act.

The use of celebrities in advertising of surrogate products has become a fairly common practice for major liquor firms for they hope that celebrities may boost effectiveness of their marketing and corporate communication attempts by establishing emotional connect with the consumers and enhance recall. This is further validated by a Celebrity Endorsement Survey conducted by India Market Research Bureau and public relations firm IPAN which states that 86 per cent Indians remember advertisements owing to the celebrities that endorse them. No wonders then that since 2003, celebrity endorsement volume on television has gone up by more than six times. Celebrities apparently have the knack to hold viewers' attention and infiltrate the clutter of the multitudes of advertising spots that compete for audience attention.

Celebrity surrogate advertising has been ever improvising with Shatrughan Sinha for the Bagpiper soda to the leading stars such as Akshay Kumar for the Red & White Bravery Awards, events -- Baccardi Blast which has been a pilgrimage with the hip youth, Kingfisher - Saurav and Jadeja at the popular jig for a mineral water, the famous Charminar Challenge and the other sports promotions -- Gold Flake Open and Royal Challenge, music -- Charms Spirit of Freedom Concerts and fashion - the designer collection at the Wills Lifestyle chain of stores, the face of while the story boards have been reworked and gone creative. "HUM, tum or mera Bagpiper". This Bagpiper club soda advertisement, featuring cine celebrities, is similar to the earlier one for Bagpiper whisky.

The ad formula of liquor brands is simple — huge visual display of brand names combined with extremely small fine prints that make the presence of accessories, holiday destinations, CDs, cassettes, parties, mineral water and awards felt. And still simpler is the use of celebrities in the advertisements. It imprints the mind of the happening youth, who form 57 per cent of our population. Some surrogate advertisements featuring celebrities are listed in Table 1.

Table 1. Surrogate advertisements featuring celebrities

The present study has the following specific objectives:

• To study whether surrogate advertisements by celebrity affect celebrity's Likeability and credibility.
• To understand whether celebrity endorsements of surrogate products affect recall of product

Secondary data played an important part for this study and can be considered as the backbone of the study. In this case, this was very important issue because there is a dearth of research on the topic and as far the knowledge of the researcher goes no study has been done on the topic of surrogate celebrity endorsements. The literature review allowed the researcher to see clearly what the key issues of celebrity endorsement were. The literature review comprised of academic work and other published sources related to the theories in consumer behavior, endorsement, and advertising. Regarding the aim and overall objectives it had particular focus was on surrogate celebrity endorsements. Journals and news papers which are a more rich and current source of information were assessed and formed an important source of information.

Primary data are new data specifically collected in the current research project, where the researcher is the first user, as opposed to secondary data. For the primary research a quantitative method was used which is structured form of data collection and it employs quantitative measurement and statistical analysis.

This research was conducted in two phases. In the first phase the study was conducted to test the recall. For this Study, 80 respondents from age group 20-25years were selected randomly. The respondents were college students who were shown a portfolio of 10 running clips of surrogate advertisements for an average running time of 30 seconds. According to research relating to attention span, 30 seconds is considered as the attention span of an average individual, therefore the exposure period of each slide was limited to 30 seconds. These advertisements are aired by different liquor companies in India. Out of 10 advertisements that were shown, three advertisements had celebrities endorsing liquor brands (i.e. surrogate celebrity advertisements). After seeing the advertisements the respondents were asked to recall and describe the advertisements mentioning product, brand, celebrities, colors and anything that they remembered about the advertisements. As a cover the subjects were told that the study concerned their learning and perceptive abilities. In the second phase the study was conducted using a questionnaire designed to understand consumers' views on surrogate endorsements by celebrities. For the study 1, a questionnaire containing 20 statements was specially constructed. For this purpose the vast expanse of literature was consulted. Since, the most frequently used summated scales in the study of social attitude follow the pattern devised by Likert, the Questionnaire consisted of a five point Likert scale. This five point scale ranged from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree", with the middle of the scale identified by the response alternative "neither agree nor disagree". Upon completion the subjects were thanked, debriefed and dismissed. The data thus collected was then analyzed.

The respondents include the consumers belonging to the middle income group and covering all age groups namely the working class, women, college goers and children. College Students were made respondents of the Study because according to research worldwide it is estimated that they have the most spending power, and spend an estimated $153 billion a year on everything from computers to apparel. This group of individuals are very trend conscious, knowledgeable in accessing the media, as well as advertising and they have grown up in a consumer orientated society (Brand, 2000). These individuals are big spenders, trendsetters, receptive to new products and have tremendous potential for being lifelong customers (Wolburg & Pokrywczynski, 2001). They also are constantly searching for their independence, so influences form the media, such as, celebrities, become very important to them. This generation does not respond well to lectures from parents, instead they turn to their peers for advice and opinions, when forming their brand preferences.

It is believed and even proven by some researchers that individuals with higher levels of education might be less influenced by any form of advertising than those with less education, because education provides individuals with analytical skills allowing them to decipher information from several sources prior to making a purchasing decision, making them less likely to purchase a product based on one source.

In this section the analysis of the responses collected through questionnaire has been discussed. Table 2 below shows the Demographic Profile of the Respondents, this analysis studies the level of education according to demographic variables of age, gender and educational qualification as follows:

Table 2. Demographic Profile of the Respondents

Cronbach's Alpha is a reasonable indicator of the internal consistency of instrument that does not have right or wrong (binary) marking schemes. It essentially calculates the average of all possible split-half reliability coefficients. An alpha value of more than 0.712 is an indicator of good internal consistency of the instrument. The Alpha value was 0.779 which can be said to be an indicator of good reliability of the instrument as shown in Table 3.

Table 3. Reliability Statistics

The validity of the scales used in the questionnaire was measured through face and content validity. Face validity was determined by the judgment of the researcher, who compiled the questionnaire with various scales, which logically appeared to accurately reflect what they were supposed to measure. Content validity was measured by firstly defining what exactly needed to be measured. In this study key components were identified through the hypotheses constructed that helped to identify what needed to be measured. An extensive literature search and conducting focus groups helped to identify all possible items that needed to be included in the scale. Opinions were sought from experts on whether certain items should be included or even excluded. Statisticians were approached to assess the scale and items selected in this study.

5.1 Descriptive Analysis

The descriptive analysis as shown in Table 4 was carried out to draw inferences from the data. Mean and standard deviation were computed. Mean is the average score of each item. Mean was calculated to find out how the maximum number of respondents responded to each item. It indicates the level of significance. Standard deviation was carried out to find out how the responses of each item are varying around the mean of the item. This indicates how far the respondents' opinions are matching on every individual item.

Mean and standard deviations are the most widely utilized statistical tools. They have been used to determine the central tendency (typical score) and variability (spread) of interval data. It gives a basic idea as to how the subjects responded on the scale, i.e. towards the satisfaction side or dissatisfaction side. Mathematically, the mean is the arithmetic average of a number of scores. Standard deviation gives an idea of deviation from mean scores. More deviation means more difference in opinion and less deviation means less difference in opinion. Percentage of mean scores shows whether responses fall on satisfaction side or dissatisfaction side.

Table 4. Descriptive Statistics-Results of the variables

5.2 Chi Square Test

This was carried to provide an indication of the probability that the sample is representative of the whole population. It was applied for the data to find out whether the employees responded to all alternatives of each item equally or not, if they responded equally then no conclusion can be made from the study. The Chi-Square values are given in Table 5.

Table 5. Calculated x² values for variables

5.3 Hypotheses Testing

Various hypotheses were formed in order to analyze the data. For hypotheses testing 95% confidence level was adopted as a cut off significance, reflecting research and publication standards. SPSS 14.00 was used to run the one tailed T-tests.

H0: There is no effect on the perception of credibility of celebrity endorser of surrogate products and celebrity endorsements among respondents of the study.

As evident from Table 6, all calculated value is more than the Table value: 1.645, therefore Null Hypothesis is rejected. Relationship is found between the perception of credibility of celebrity endorser of surrogate products and celebrity endorsements among respondents of the study.

Table 6. One-Sample Test for Hypothesis 1

H0: There is no negative effect on likeability of celebrity endorser of surrogate products and celebrity endorsements among respondents of the study.

As evident from Table 7,all calculated value is more than the Table value: 1.645, therefore Null Hypothesis is rejected. There is negative effect on likeability of celebrity endorser of surrogate products and celebrity endorsements among respondents of the study.

Table 7. T-Test results for hypothesis 2

H0: There is no significant association between surrogate advertisements by celebrities and purchase intentions of consumers.

As evident from Table 8, the Table value at 5% level of significance is 2.20. All the calculated values were above the table value, hence we reject the hypothesis. There is a significant association between surrogate advertisements by celebrities and purchase intentions of consumers.

Table 8. T8 -Test Hypothesis 3

H0: There is no significant association between Recall of surrogate brands and celebrity endorsement in advertisements.

As evident from Table 9, the Table value at 5% level of significance is 1.645. All the calculated values are above the table value, hence we reject the hypothesis. There is significant association between Recall of surrogate advertisements and celebrity endorsement in advertisements.

Table 9. T-Test for Recall

This study examined the impact of the celebrities' endorsements of surrogate products on consumers' attitude and buying intentions. The primary research questions related to the effect of celebrity endorsements of surrogate products on consumers. The findings related subjects' perceptions towards endorsers' credibility, trustworthiness, expertise and likeability showed that celebrity endorsers are perceived to be credible. There is asignificant association between surrogate advertisements by celebrities and purchase intentions of consumers and that they can help increase sales. There is recall and recognition even of surrogate products endorsed by celebrities. But on the flip side, there is a negative effect on likeability of celebrity endorser of surrogate products. Thus it implies that even if the recall of Brand is enhanced, it affects the image of the celebrity adversely. In short the findings indicated that celebrity endorsements generated higher purchase intentions, positive attitudes toward the ad but negative attitudes towards the brand endorser. So, it is suggested that both the marketers and celebrities should remain in touch with the expectations, perceptions, and opinions of the public for presenting socially acceptable advertisements before them.

To conclude, this study has examined the extent to which consumers in India are affected by celebrity endorsements. The major Contributions of the Study is to suggest several implications for the advertisers. It supports the view that celebrity endorsement strategy works. Like Lafferty et al. (1999) this study also found that consumer attitudes toward celebrities influenced purchase intentions. The empirical contribution of the study is that it provides empirical evidence with respect to surrogate advertisements and celebrity endorsement strategy. An applied contribution of this study is that it is beneficial for the companies who want to utilize celebrity endorsements for their products and devise their advertising strategy at the same time it is an eye opener for the government agencies that have banned surrogate advertisements. The implicit implication is that more strict rules need to be formed and awareness generated against surrogate advertisements. An examination of the results presented in this study by the industry may lead to a better understanding of the general opinion of the Indian consumers about the social, economic and ethical aspects of advertising.

Limitations of the Study

The present study is constrained by inherent limitations. Restricting the sample to the state of Jharkhand is a limitation so maybe it will not be suitable for all geographical regions and across various age groups. Seriousness and knowledge level of respondents and also the nature of study, since people do not talk or openly discuss alcohol because of the societal restrictions. The final limitation was deficiency of previous research related to surrogate celebrity endorsements especially in India. Thus, future research may be needed to support this study.

Scope for Future Research

There is a wide scope of future research in this area as it is unexplored as yet. In future the sample could be drawn from different geographical regions. Also, research on this topic should include measuring a celebrity advertisement versus a non-celebrity advertisement within the same brand in the surrogate product category. This would be important because it would show how effective or ineffective celebrity endorsements are. Research should also include measuring celebrities before they are selected to appear in an advertisement. This can help make the advertisement as effective as possible. The consequent effect of advertising for surrogate products on consumers' purchase pattern should also be practically examined.