Desk Report
Published: 10 Oct 2021, 11:26 am
Byju’s Hits Pause on Shah Rukh Khan Ads after Son Aryan Khan’s Arrest || Photo: Collected
Shah Rukh Khan has been making headlines for all the wrong
reasons after his son Aryan Khan was arrested from a cruise ship for the
consumption of illegal substances. Although he’s facing the toughest time of
his life, fans are showing their full support. Meanwhile, SRK has called off
his upcoming projects to be with his family in Mumbai, and recently BYJU’S took
the hard decision to pause their association with the superstar.
The move comes after the tech giant faced multiple backlash from netizens since NCB conducted a raid on the luxury cruise and arrested King Khan’s son along with seven others. Some social media users claimed that endorsing an education app by someone who can’t teach his own child to act lawfully will impact their image badly.
Although BYJU’S official spokesperson declined to comment on
this matter, but another person involved told Economic Times, “They have paused
all SRK-related promotions for now. It had to be pulled as the company which is
in the area of education wouldn’t like to be seen in promotions with him given
the controversy (over the drug case involving his son) These ads were booked in
advance—as is the process—so it took some time to stop all of them.”
BYJU’S had also planned a new ad campaign with Shah Rukh
Khan just a few weeks back and they were also planning for IPL ads too, another
person involved adds, “For Byju’s, they had planned for IPL ads too and now
there is a discomfort around that as the tournament moves to its next stage.
It’s not clear if they will be able to pull out of all IPL promotions,” another
person aware of the matter said.”
Apart from the educational tech company, SRK is also the face of big brands like Hyundai, LG, Dubai Tourism, ICICI Bank, Reliance Jio. Reportedly, the education company has the biggest sponsorship deal with the superstar, he was paid nearly Rs 3-4 crore per year for the endorsement.
Meanwhile, Tata Group is also maintaining silence on the
matter, on the other hand, Rohit Ohri, group chairman at creative ad agency FCB
India shared that pausing Shah Rukh Khan’s association will affect BYJU’S in a
bad way.
“BYJU’S has benefited immensely from its association with
SRK. Shah Rukh’s association with the edtech brand has been so intrinsic and so
deep, that even if BYJU’S is pausing the advertising for now, it will be very
difficult for the brand to delink itself from SRK.”
As of now, the magistrate has ruled out Aryan Khan’s bail
plea and said, “Have heard the applications and the submissions. The
applications are not maintainable before us and hence rejected.”