PepsiCo ends 11-year endorsement contract with MS Dhoni

PepsiCo has ended its 11-year old association with the Indian Cricket one-day and T20 team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Economic Times said. 

Dhoni, who was signed as the face of PepsiCo and Lay's chips in 2005, was a part of several popular campaigns of PepsiCo like "Ohh yes abhi" and "Change the game". 

The report quoted PepsiCo V-P for beverages Vipul Prakash saying, "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." 

Currently, apart from Dhoni, cricketer Virat Kohli, bollywood actors Ranbir Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra endorses PepsiCo brands. 

According to a Business Insider report, Kohli has been named as the new icon of the company. 

But, Kohli's association with PepsiCo is not new. Last year, he had appeared in PepsiCo's ads with Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma.

According to the Business Insider report, Kohli charges around Rs 2 crore a day versus Rs 1.5 crore by Dhoni. For annual contracts, Dhoni's fees is around Rs 8 crore.

Since the end of 2014, when Dhoni had decided to retire as the captain of the Test matches, his brand endorsements have come down to 10 from 18, the report said. Apart from Pepsi, his endorsement list included brands like Orient Fans, Sony, Big Bazaar, TVS Motors and Videocon.

Dhoni was featured in the Forbes Magazine under the highest-paid athletes in the world list, which said that he had earned $27 million (Rs 179.62 crore) from endorsements alone, annually.