Soft drink giants Coca-Cola India have decided to discontinue Salman Khan as brand ambassador of its homegrown cola Thums Up. Gen-Now heartthrob Ranveer Singh could replace Sallu, sources revealed on Wednesday. Salman has been associated with promoting the drink for years now and his contract as endorser for the brand expired in September. The company has chosen not to renew their association
with the actor. While Coca-Cola has not given any official reason behind the move, the decision comes within weeks that Salman countered demands that Pakistani actors be banned from working in Bollywood, in the wake of the Uri attacks. He had said it was the Indian government that gave Pakistani artists work permits and so they should not be equated with terrorists, who enter the country on the sly with a destructive purpose.
A few have speculated that the 50-year-old actor lost out because every other cola brand is opting for younger stars. Salman was last among the three Khans to lose out a cola endorsement deal to younger generation stars.
A few years back, Ranbir Kapoor briefly took over endorsing Pepsi from Shah Rukh Khan. Siddharth Malhotra, Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan did a few ad-films for Coca-Cola, or Coke, after Aamir Khan stopped appearing as the brand's ambassador. Subsequently, Deepika Padukone has stepped in as endorser of Coke.
This is not the first time Salman is dropped from Thums Up campaign. He has been endorsing the brand since early 2000s but his contract was annulled in 2012 after controversy over his court cases started burgeoning. Akshay Kumar briefly modelled for the brand during this tenure. Salman, however, returned to the Thums Up bandwagon when his NGO 'Being Human' signed a deal with Coca-Cola India to engage in charity work. Neither Coke nor Salman were available for comment.
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