Dabur unleashes star power to push product in Nepal

KATHMANDU - In India, Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan and stars like Preity Zinta and Rani Mukherjee have promoted its products. Now FMCG giant Dabur is using the same strategy in Nepal to push a brand that became the victim of a smear campaign.

From this week, Rajesh Hamal, the undisputed king of Nepals silver screen, became the celebrity promoting Dabur Nepals Mango Nectar fruit juice produced under the Real brand name.

Besides the TV channels and newspapers, the super stars deep voice can be heard in radio commercial as well, saying he believes in the best quality and has been drinking the Real brand of fruit juice for years.

The advertisements end with Hamal declaring he still has that faith and the brand still provides the best quality.

Hamals entry comes after Dabur Nepal, a subsidiary of Dabur India, unleashed a new media campaign to reassure buyers in the wake of a vicious campaign by a section of the media.

The campaign, alleging that cartons of Mango Nectar had been found to contain insects and other impurities, started after Dabur Nepal, one of the biggest industries in Nepal, did not renew its advertisement campaign with a leading media group and refused advertisements to a few other news organisations.

After a consumer awareness campaign, Outreach, the Nepali advertising agency handling the Real account, brought out Karishma Manandhar, one of Nepals reigning leading ladies of the past who has made a comeback to the film industry after a long sojourn in the US.

The advertisements show Manandhar declaring as a mother that she looks for quality and has faith in Dabur Nepals products.

The second advertisement in the series featured leading Nepali entrepreneur Min Bahadur Sherchan, whose Bhatbhateni department store is one of the landmarks and prime shopping centres in Kathmandu.

Hamals appearance this week is the climax. Outreach said they had no immediate plans to sign up any more Nepali actors.

The company, interestingly, did not rope in veteran Bollywood actor Manisha Koirala though the star is currently in Kathmandu, having begun her second innings in Nepal.

Last month, Manisha appeared in a commercial for a direct-to-home satellite TV service provider and next month, her new Nepali film “Dharma” is tentatively scheduled for release.