Do celebrities really help a brand?

The straight answer would be - yes they will. Otherwise companies will not spend that much amount on the stars day in and day out. Bollywood and cricket the 2 biggest things in India occupy most of the ad slots. The rest is filled by the models and some theme based ads.
Some ads have a very catchy punchlines but the visual representation falls short. Good example is the sprite ad of seedhi baat no bakwas. It is not done in a straight forward manner – the one with Shah Rukh. It is actually working against Sprite as the Knight Riders team is not frightening the opposition but becoming the butt of jokes. Sprite should stop airing that ad.
Watching TV becomes boring these days because of the Citi moment’s of success and DLF maximum’s. It is becoming abundantly clear that we cannot get away from advertisements. So, why not make our Coca Cola moments more Zinga Lala without any bakhwas.
Vodafone’s new ads are done by Oligvly & Mather (O&M) India team. The ads were shot with a budget of 3 crores in South Africa. The characters in the ads are real people (slim-built women) and not animated. If the ads were animated it would cost a bomb and would have been ready for IPL 2010.
These ads has set a new standard in Indian ad industry and are challenging the paradigm of “Sex and Shah Rukh sell in India”. Because they used to, not anymore.