Lucknow: Yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali ayurved has decided not to advertise during IPL season 11, since the company feels that cricket, and specifically the IPL, is a “foreigner’s game”. Not to forget, Patanjali is among the country’s largest FMCG advertisers with an annual advertisement budget of Rs 600-650 crore.
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The Haridwar based brand has always stayed away from IPL to promote its brand and products.
According to a report published in ET, “The sport (in this case, IPL) as it is, promotes consumerism and is sponsored by multinationals. Patanjali will invest in sports which are Indian and promote Indian sports at the grassroots such as wresting and kabaddi.” said chief executive of Patanjali Acharya Balkrishna.
Patanjali has been the prime sponsor of Pro Wrestling League in India and has also endorsed the Kabaddi World Cup of 2016.
“We will continue to invest in local sports which promote the culture of the country,” Acharya Balkrishna added.
Patanjali has wisely managed its tag of “Swadeshi” by staying away from cricket. However Nitin Singh Shekhawat a top sports management industrialist told Digitalsporty “Cricket is one of the biggest market in India and rapidly growing market in the world. The league is associated with BCCI and is no way a foreign product that can blindfold “Swadeshi” tag line of Patanjali.
