It is indeed a brand’s smart move to rope in popular celebrities for endorsements. Their fan following is automatically redirected to the purchasing of the products they advertise. And this becomes the primary reason why celebrities have to be mindful before signing up for anything because literally no one is spared from the wrath of netizens when things turn ugly.

Amidst many celebrities who were chastised for becoming the face of problematic brands, there have been a few who had the guts to own up and apologise. Read on and find out. 

1. Akshay Kumar 

In a recent occurrence, after being trolled and facing a lot of outrage for endorsing paan masalaAkshay Kumar took to the internet to apologise and promise to make more thoughtful choices in the future.

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2. Deepika Padukone 

Deepika Padukone was a brand ambassador for a cola drink in addition to endorsing a fairness cream. The actress, however, distanced herself from these brands and became very picky about which ones she promotes.

Yahoo News Singapore

3. Amitabh Bachchan

Even Amitabh Bachchan wasn’t spared from facing heavy flak for appearing in a paan masala brand advertisement. So he dropped out of the ad campaign for the brand and claimed to have returned the money he was paid to promote it.

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4. Ranveer Singh

In an advertisement for Jack and Jones, Ranveer Singh was seen carrying a woman on his shoulders with the tagline ‘Don’t hold back. The ad was utterly sexist and Singh apologised for it saying,
“It was important to give the brand the creative freedom while designing the campaign but I guess we got it wrong on one of those billboards. I am sorry this happened but it is a thing of past. We rectified it immediately by having the hoarding taken down as early as possible from over 30 cities overnight.”

Fashion Network

5. Pierce Brosnan

Following his appearance in a surrogate advertising for Pan Bahar, a pan masala brand, Hollywood actor Pierce Brosnan claimed that the company “cheated” him by keeping him in the dark about the product’s “hazardous” nature. He also signed a written agreement that he will never assist any company in the future in the promotion of such products or other harmful products.

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Sometimes stepping back is the only right thing to do.