MUMBAI: The Baba Ramdev founded FMCG major Patanjali has said that it would not advertise during the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) as it considers cricket in general, and the tournament in particular, “a foreigner’s game”, Economic Times reports.
“The sport [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 wrestling and kabaddi,” Patanjali chief executive Acharya Balakrishna was quoted as saying in the report.
The argument seems rather specious considering that the home grown FMCG major founded by popular yoga exponent Baba Ramdev has no qualms about making Patanjali products available on e-commerce websites like US headquartered Amazon.
Could it be that Balakrishna and Ramdev have taken the considered view that the entry price points for advertising on IPL do not make business sense for one of the largest FMCG advertisers in the country with an annual ad budget of between Rs 5.7 billion and Rs 6 billion? Whatever be the case, it is worth noting for the record that in 2016, Patanjali was one of the sponsors of the Kabaddi World Cup and in 2017 it did the same with the Pro Wrestling League.
Balakrishna further told ET that the company will continue its investment in local sports to “promote the culture of India”. So Pro Kabaddi League (no doubts there) and Pro Wrestling League (?) have clearly passed Patanjali’s “nationalism quotient” test.
