The pregnant celebrity is advertising gold. It may have started with the conventional big guns of pregnancy advertising—the pregnancy test, which superstars like Shilpa Shetty Kundra and Kareena Kapoor Khan have endorsed—but since has trickled down to sundry sectors, whether fashion, property, travel, hygiene, food or banking. When Anushka Sharma, who has almost 45.9 million Instagram followers, tells you to bank at the press of a button, it’s bound to carry some weight. Standard Chartered Bank’s latest commercial showed a heavily pregnant Sharma use a digital credit card online, after she asked her baby bump what it thinks she should order. The idea was to dramatise the ease of accomplishing even seemingly complex banking chores from home. “We asked ourselves, who deserves to have it a little easier than all of us? It had to be the pregnant woman,” says Parixit Bhattacharya, Managing Partner (Creative) of TBWA\ India\The Disruption® Company, the agency behind the TechItEasy campaign. “The script pretty much wrote itself out since we wanted realistic snatches of Anushka’s day where digital banking would fit in gently. We made sure the spaces we shot her in seemed close to her natural surrounding.” 

Television actor Nakuul Mehta (2 million followers) and singer wife Jankee Parekh (321k followers) have done brand collaborations with The Lodha Group and Amazon right through her pregnancy 

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Renée Cramer, a professor of law, politics and society at Drake University and the author of Pregnant With the Stars: Watching and Wanting the Celebrity Baby Bump, called pregnant mothers “branded exemplars of how ordinary people can and should live.” Dr Kramer said in an interview to the New York Times, “When we see a celebrity holding up a certain brand of pregnancy test or diapers, it reminds average people that, well, this company belongs in your nursery, even if there’s no good reason for it.” Bhattacharya agrees. “Celebrities are seen as people who have made it. And we ascribe their success to the choices they make. Pregnant women are bombarded with advice, so it becomes important to them that the choices they make are informed by the right influencers or are purely their own.” Keegan Pinto, National Creative Director of FCB Ulka, discusses the value of voyeurism. “We want to see how Kareena and Anushka look pregnant. When they put their personal lives out there, it is more interesting. A pregnant customer also may look at Kareena and think, ‘if she is okay dressing up her baby bump, why can’t I?’” But asking if the celebrity is making the best of the pregnancy, and gaining more momentum with the masses, is wrong. Bhattacharya clarifies, “Celebs are already relevant to the masses. It is the brand that advertisers want to make relevant. The golden rule of course, is that the values of the brand and the values of the celebrity must stack up together.”

Influencers like Shifa Merchant say that they didn't start out being preggo influencers, but learnt that continuing to make relevant content even through that phase of their personal lives would  mean good money and a new segment of followers

That’s exactly what television actor and singer couple Nakuul Mehta (2 million followers) and Jankee Parekh (321k followers) have kept in mind when choosing the brands they endorse. The couple announced they were to have a child last November, and Parekh spoke to us one day after delivering her baby last week. Mehta, who is known for his role in Never Kiss Your Best Friend, and Ishqbaaz, has been married to Parekh, a live performer, for nine years. Since they announced the pregnancy, they have been part of brand collaborations with Lodha Evoq, Amazon and Dyson India. “The pregnancy has been absolutely wonderful and I have been able to work from home until my 37th week,” Parekh says. “Being a vocalist and live performer, due to the pandemic, I was working from home, which ended up being a blessing given the pregnancy. Also, the digital work coming my way shot through the roof, given higher marketing budgets are being spent during the lockdown. My being a  new mother came with being of interest to new brands.” 

Anandita Agrawal says she’s choosy about what brand she endorses as a mother and stays away from barters in favour of fully paid deals

The couple say they are conscious of which brands they give the nod to, and prefer to participate in the creative process including having a say in the script. “We have mostly collaborated with lifestyle brands and a few socially conscious labels in the last few months. Our favourite collaboration was with the Lodha Group where they gave us complete freedom to tell our story through our lens.” The pictures from the campaign show the couple lounging around plush interiors. Going forward, they want to tread the fine line between managing brand collaborations and maintaining their privacy. “I do look forward to combining music and storytelling given that we are both artistes, but our specialities are different.”

Parixit Bhattacharya, Tejal Daftary and Keegan Pinto

Tejal Daftary, founder of Alphabet Media, agrees that when they approach a brand with the client list, expecting celebrities and new mothers are on top of the roster. It matters that such celebrities come with a certain trust and credibility. “What has also changed is that most of the ads today are social media-centric, and that’s where pregnant celebrities have most clout. They share their life on their handles, and hence rate very high on the list of who customers would believe while buying a brand. They are also asking for, and getting, good money. If you have a following of over 500k, you can expect to make anything R3 lakh upwards,” she says. 

Neha Dhupia

Actress and host Neha Dhupia, who has 4.5 million Instagram followers, says trust should play a big role. “If I use the brand [I am endorsing], or may like to use, I say yes. I don’t question it too much. Usability is the biggest choice maker for me.” Most influencers mid-day spoke to assured that they use the brands they endorse. 

Television actress Saumya Tandon who quit a hit show to be a full time-mother says she has rejected offers from brands of diet pills and stretch mark creams in favour of health and body positivity

Television actress of Bhabiji Ghar Par Hain! fame, Saumya Tandon, who has 974k followers, tells us that she had to turn down some offers. She refused a brand of diet pills and ointment to reduce stretch marks. “I didn’t want my followers to believe they needed to do this. New mothers are more than just 24-inch waists. But I did talk about exercising, and getting back into shape.” Tandon gave birth to a baby girl in 2019. Since then, she has done collaborations with brands she agrees with, including dermatological skin brand Cetaphil.

Actor-producer Anushka Sharma, who had a baby with cricketer husband Virat Kohli this month, recently featured in an ad for Standard Chartered Bank which showed her making easy banking decisions from the comfort of her home through her pregnancy

Sidhu understands that India is driven by a family culture, and when you are “influencing”, you need to be responsible. “An alcohol brand approached me but I said, no, because I don’t want to tell moms to put their child to sleep and then have a drink!” For micro influencer Anandita Agrawal, who has 60k followers and is due in March, saying yes to a brand  means she has to agree with it on ethical terms. She claims she rejects more brands than she endorses, especially products like supplements. She charges anywhere between Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 per post, reel or video, and says her message is likely to get to 50,000 people via organic reach. 
 
Most influencers didn’t start out being the last word on motherhood. But pregnancy and the years that follow, they have realised, are critical for personal brand building and arriving at a sustainable business model. For some, it has become a way of life. Shifa Merchant writes the blog Sassy Shif Says, and has 313k followers. She says, “My blogging journey began at a time when there weren’t many bloggers and it was way before I got pregnant. So for me, creating authentic content and giving my readers a peek into my world has been the only way I know. When I got pregnant, I was hustling the exact same way and in fact even more. I walked a mini-marathon, travelled till my third trimester and continued creating sustained content for my followers, whether it was about travelling, fashion, skin care or belly art. Brands seemed to have appreciated the preggo content since it was authentic.”

And this then makes pregnant influencers attractive to more than one industry. Brands are keen they talk about the properties they stayed at, the juice they drink, the electronics they use, moisturiser they choose, the sheets they sleep on, toys they want their kids to use, and the workout clothes they sweat out in. Founder of public delegations firm DeTales Brand Communications, Tripti Bhatia Gandhi says that when a brand uses a pregnant celebrity, it knows it is targeting not just the expectant or new mother but the whole family. “Brands are aware that once the baby is born, there will be other stuff to plug as well. You will need food, fashion and hygiene. And these are needs  that everyone has—babies, moms, fathers, and families.”

20M
No. of babies estimated to have been born in 2020 in India, according to report published by UNICEF 

Rs 30k-Rs 5 lakh
Approximate cost for an influencer post on Instagram