Mumbai: Celebrity endorsements continue to be a cornerstone of Indian television advertising, but 2025 marked a year of recalibration rather than expansion. According to the TAM AdEx Celebrity Endorsement Report 2025, celebrity-led advertising accounted for just over a quarter of total TV ad volumes, even as overall endorsement activity witnessed a decline compared to the previous year.
The data suggests that while celebrities remain critical for brand salience and recall, advertisers are becoming more selective—deploying star power strategically, focusing on fewer sectors, and timing campaigns around high-impact consumption and sporting windows.
Celebrity Ads Form 27% of TV Advertising
In 2025, celebrity-endorsed commercials contributed 27% of total television ad volumes, while the remaining 73% comprised non-celebrity advertising. This ratio underlines the enduring relevance of celebrities in a cluttered TV ecosystem, even as brands explore alternative storytelling formats and digital-first strategies.
Among celebrity professions, film stars continued to dominate overwhelmingly, accounting for 73% of celebrity ad volumes. Male film actors alone contributed 43%, followed by film actresses at 29%. Sports personalities added 20%, while TV actors and actresses together accounted for less than 10%.
The skew reflects advertisers’ continued preference for mass-appeal celebrities with nationwide familiarity, particularly in high-frequency consumer categories.
Growth in 2024, Correction in 2025
A key finding from the report is the decline in celebrity-endorsed ad volumes in 2025 after a modest rise in 2024. Indexed growth data shows that while celebrity advertising grew 3% in 2024 over 2023, volumes fell sharply in 2025, with the index dropping to 80 (base year 2023 = 100).
This de-growth does not necessarily indicate waning confidence in celebrity endorsements. Instead, it reflects a combination of rising endorsement costs, greater scrutiny on ROI, and partial migration of celebrity-led campaigns to digital and social platforms. Advertisers appear to be prioritising fewer but more impactful celebrity associations rather than high-volume exposure.
IPL Continues to Drive Celebrity Advertising Peaks
Seasonality remained a defining feature of celebrity-led TV advertising. March 2025 recorded the highest monthly share of celebrity ad volumes at 10.7%, followed closely by May and September. In contrast, November and December saw the lowest shares, highlighting cautious spending toward the end of the year.
Quarterly trends reinforce the dominance of the April–June period, driven largely by the Indian Premier League (IPL). This quarter delivered the highest share of celebrity-endorsed advertising in both 2024 and 2025, reaffirming live sports as the most valuable window for star-led brand communication.
Interestingly, while 2024 saw stronger performance in the second half, 2025 was clearly front-loaded, with ad volumes tapering off sharply after June.
FMCG Sectors Dominate Celebrity Endorsements
Celebrity advertising remained heavily concentrated in a handful of sectors. Food & Beverages emerged as the top sector, contributing 24% of all celebrity-endorsed ad volumes, followed by Personal Care/Personal Hygiene at 16% and Household Products at 10%.
Together, the top three sectors accounted for nearly 50% of all celebrity ads, while the top seven sectors contributed 79%, underlining the FMCG-led nature of celebrity endorsement on television.
The reliance on celebrities in these categories reflects intense competition, limited product differentiation, and the need to build trust and familiarity at scale.
Clear Gender Coding Across Categories
The report also highlights strong gender-based patterns in celebrity deployment. In Food & Beverages, male celebrities dominated with a 64% share, whereas Personal Care and Personal Hygiene ads were led by female celebrities at 61%.
Across the top 10 sectors, the average gender split stood at 60:40 in favour of male celebrities. Notably, sectors such as Computers, Agriculture, and Media featured exclusively male celebrity endorsers, pointing to persistent gender biases in category credibility and representation.
Hygiene and Daily-Use Categories Lead by Volume
At a category level, Toilet and Floor Cleaners topped celebrity-endorsed advertising, contributing 9% of total celebrity ad volumes. Toilet soaps, washing powders/liquids, and aerated soft drinks followed at 5% each.
The top 10 categories together contributed 40% of celebrity-endorsed advertising, indicating that celebrity usage is concentrated in daily-use, high-frequency consumption categories where recall and reassurance play a critical role.
E-commerce Gaming Attracts the Most Celebrities
While FMCG categories dominated by volume, a different picture emerged when analysing the number of celebrities endorsing a category.
E-commerce gaming led the chart, with 41 celebrities endorsing brands in this segment, followed by e-commerce media/entertainment platforms (34 celebrities) and building materials/systems (32 celebrities).
This trend suggests that newer, competitive, and digitally native categories are experimenting with multiple celebrity faces to appeal to fragmented and diverse audiences, rather than relying on a single mass icon.
Shah Rukh Khan Most Visible, Dhoni Endorses the Most Brands
In terms of on-screen visibility, Shah Rukh Khan emerged as the most visible celebrity on Indian television in 2025, with an average daily presence of nearly 30 hours across channels. M.S. Dhoni ranked second, with around 20 hours of daily visibility.
However, when measured by the number of brands endorsed, Dhoni topped the list with 59 brand associations, increasing his tally from 52 in 2024. Shah Rukh Khan followed with 41 brands.
Only four celebrities—Dhoni, Shah Rukh Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, and Hrithik Roshan—expanded their endorsement portfolios year-on-year, highlighting a broader trend of tightening celebrity-brand relationships.
Celebrity Couples Strengthen Trust Narratives
Celebrity couples continued to play a significant role in brand storytelling. Ranbir Kapoor–Alia Bhatt, Anushka Sharma–Virat Kohli, Deepika Padukone–Ranveer Singh, and Amitabh Bachchan–Jaya Bachchan together accounted for 50% of celebrity couple-endorsed ads.
These pairings allow brands to tap into themes of family, credibility, and long-term trust, especially in categories such as financial services, household products, and real estate.
A Year of Consolidation, Not Retreat
The TAM AdEx 2025 findings point to a clear shift: celebrity-led TV advertising is becoming more disciplined, concentrated, and outcome-driven. While volumes may have dipped, the strategic importance of celebrities—particularly in high-impact windows and FMCG categories—remains intact.
As advertisers balance television with digital and social platforms, celebrity endorsements are likely to become sharper, fewer, and more integrated across media. In that sense, 2025 stands not as a year of decline, but as a year of strategic consolidation for star-powered television advertising in India.
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