As people re-discover Sourav Ganguly’s old ad endorsing Fortune Rice Bran Oil, Twitterati wonders what the brand’s next steps will be

• BCCI President and former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly suffered a mild heart attack last Saturday.
• Ganguly is now said to be stable. However, while many were concerned about the player's health, many re-discovered his old ad endorsing Fortune's Rice Bran Oil which then triggered a slew of tweets and jokes with people questioning the effectiveness of the oil and also wondering how the brand will tackle this crisis now.

BCCI President and former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly suffered a mild heart attack last Saturday and had to undergo an angioplasty to clear a blocked coronary artery. The news triggered widespread concern and led to fans showering the former captain with wishes and prayers. Ganguly is now said to be stable. However, over the weekend, someone also noticed an ad that Ganguly had worked on for Adani Wilmar’s Fortune rice bran oil. The tagline for the campaign read, ‘Dada bole welcome to the 40s’. He is the brand ambassador for Fortune oils and as well as its soya chunks.





Now while this ad is from April 2020, a viewer pointed that the ad showing Ganguly endorsing its rice bran oil was aired even during the weekend, leaving many on Twitter amused while others pointing out the irony.





The re-discovery of the ad also led to a slew of memes and Whatsapp forwards.


On what the brand could do when it is finding itself in this crisis, for no apparent fault of their own, communications strategy consultant Karthik Srinivasan in his tweets advised removing the ads as a first step.


We checked the brand’s official handles and found that the ad had since been removed.

He also suggested that the brand should ‘build a larger narrative around the causes of heart attack in the 40s that do not directly correlate it to oil consumption alone.’

Meanwhile, brand strategist Lloyd Mathias pointed that the player did not lead an unhealthy lifestyle and that sportsmen with a 10-15 year playing life need to keep the earnings coming in.


How the brand chooses to tackle the situation is something we will now need to wait and watch.