MS Dhoni out, Virat Kohli in as PepsiCo Icon

PepsiCo recently announced that it would be terminating its 11-year association with Indian Cricket Team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. PepsiCo currently has another Indian cricket star, Virat Kohli in its ranks, apart from Bollywood superstars Ranbir Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra as brand ambassadors.

The news comes only a couple of days after Dhoni failed to get India over the line in the 1^st T20I against the West Indies, and might indicate that Dhoni’s long reign as one of the most wanted faces for advertisers might be coming to an end. He will be replaced by Virat Kohli as the icon for the company.

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Virat Kohli is at the stage of his career where he is the leading man in India for advertisements and will surely enjoy a long stint at the top. PepsiCo have enjoyed a great association with the Indian Cricket over the years and a number of legends including Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid have appeared in their ads.

Speaking about the chance, PepsiCo VP for beverages Vipul Prakash said, “At PepsiCo, our focus in advertising and marketing is to make our products the hero and celebrate the hero. The idea will always play the most important role. If there's a role for the celebrity that helps take forward the idea of celebrating our product, we're more than happy to taking it further."

Dhoni retired as the captain of the Test at the end of 2014. At the stage, he represented 18 brands. Now, the list is said to be less than 10 and is certainly a less distinguished one. Over the past 18 months, his association with Sony, Dabur, Amrapali and now, Pepsi have come to an end.

With the emergence of other young stars like KL Rahul, who might soon work his way into the ad space, this might signal the end for Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Given the fact that India gears up for a long Test season, the wicket-keeper batsman will be seen in action much less and is largely out of the spotlight.

MS Dhoni is currently gearing up for the release of his biopic, and we might see Dhoni advertising more mature brands, rather than youth-centric brands, like Pepsi, that he has been the face of for over a decade.