Shah Rukh Khan’s brand value to take a hit following son Aryan Khan’s drug case? No, says experts

Actor Shah Rukh Khan is going through a tough personal phase with his 23-year-old son, Aryan Khan, embroiled in a drug case. However, SRK is also feeling the heat from other quarters of life. Reportedly, Byju’s, an educational technology company, has temporarily paused all ads featuring the actor.

With this move, is SRK’s brand value going to take a hit? He currently advertises a wide range of products from paints, to cars.

Ad guru Prahlad Kakkar says that even though everyone knows that the current situation is just a “tamasha” and brands will pause ads targetted towards children because “advertising hates controversy, they never take sides.”

He explains, “Rivals might use it saying your brand ambassador’s son is doing drugs, what are you teaching children? They don’t want to open themselves up for any such attack. Rather than dropping him from the whole thing, they just paused to see what the result is. Aryan is just being held for the heck of it, it is a political thing and everybody understands that. At the end they will have to let him go.”

Producer and ad filmmaker Pritish Nandy doesn’t think the brand SRK is going to get affected. He says, “SRK’s brand value is no longer as strong as it once was when his films were doing much better. There were more people interested in watching him than there are now, so there is a natural diminishing of brand value. That cannot be attributed to the episode involving his son.”

In agreement with Nandy, trade expert Atul Mohan feels this is all temporary, and SRK will bounce back strong. “It is a tough time for Shah Rukh and his family, but it won’t affect his brand value or standing. I think he will emerge stronger after this. He would be more eagerly awaited. This is generating sympathy towards the Khan family, and more anger towards the system,” he reasons.

He puts the ballpark of what Khan earns from a single brand as an endorser at ₹8-10 crores for 12 or 18 or 24 months.

Explaining what decides an actor’s brand value, Nandy says it is their saleability at the box office. “Of course, now box office does not mean what it used to. It also depends on the many platforms that exist now. What also is very important is credibility and the sense of responsibility that a person carries on their shoulder. I will be very surprised if someone who is extremely successful but not trustworthy would fetch a large sum of money as an endorser for a brand,” he says.