John and Bipasha: Going solo

Mumbai, July 25: Mistinguette, the famous French performer and the highest paid female entertainer of her time, once remarked: “A kiss can be a comma, a question mark or an exclamation point.”

It can also be a final resolution as Bipasha Basu well knows. A much-publicised lip-lock with footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has drawn the finishing line on the John-Bips brand story.

“Their troubled relationship has been a matter of concern for the brand for some time. It cropped up big time after the recent controversy and two days after the infamous Ronaldo kiss, we decided to get over with them as brand ambassadors as a couple,” said a top official at Hindustan Lever, which has pulled out the John-Bipasha Clinic All Clear Ad.

Television as well as print ads of All Clear now have John Abraham and Bipasha endorsing the product with separate partners.

Bipasha maintains in classic Chico Marx tradition that the Ronaldo kiss — at the event to announce the new seven wonders of the world — was actually a whisper. Marx once famously said: “I was not kissing her, I was whispering into her mouth.”

“Whatever it was, it certainly was a statement that affected brand building for Clinic All Clear,” said a source at Lowe Lintas, which handles All Clear. The agency refused to comment officially.

“Though they kept cashing in on their couplehood by making joint appearance at events and shows, where they were much sought after, when it came to brand endorsements, they started going separate ways around the same time that the rift developed in their relationship,” says a close friend of John from the ad industry.

The most in-your-face signal came when right after signing on as a couple for Clinic All Clear, they shied away from becoming joint ambassadors for any other brand.

So while John wriggled into his Wranglers, Bipasha was snug in her Levi’s. Then, in a telling statement, Bipasha paired up with Zayed Khan for endorsing the Future Group’s retail-mart Pantaloons.