If you happened to see a picture of Chelsea captain John Terry on a cigarette packet, don’t be shocked. A doctored image of Terry has been used for a no-smoking campaign by an Indian tobacco brand. He will be suing the Indian Directorate of Visual Publicity, supposedly responsible for this particular creative.

This is not the first time advertising campaigns have egg on their face. During the Commonwealth Games in 2010, pictures of athletes were set against a picture of planes emitting fumes of the Indian tricolour. Turned out that the planes were Italian and the fumes resembled the colours of the Italian flag. Despite clearances from the highest authorities, there is no clarity yet about who is responsible for this gaffe. Even as the blame game escalates, football fans and eminent sportspersons from the city are shocked at this ‘misrepresentation’. Athlete Ashwini Nachappa feels celebrities are taken for granted, “This is outrageous and wrong. It’s rather surprising that a brand of such stature can make such a blatant error.”

The centreback is hopping mad at the pictorial representation as he does not even smoke. Unlike players like Mario Balotelli, Wayne Rooney, Ashley Cole and Aaron Lennon, Terry does not feature on this list of smokers. But the ad depicts otherwise. Adhip Bhandary, founder of Bangalore Youth Football League says, “At first I thought it’s a nice way to rope in a big personality for such a campaign, especially since John Terry doesn’t smoke. It’s sad to know that there are some ignorant people in the field who do not do their research about well-known faces.” Actor Chetan who is an avid football fan adds, “There is no way you can justify this mistake. The agency should have taken his permission before using his image. He’s not at fault for threatening to take this issue to court.”

Irrespective of what the justification may be, many feel damage control measures need to kick in immediately. Brand consultant Harish Bijoor says, “Nothing works like an apology as it is proactive. That’s the first thing one must do in trying to salvage the image of the company in question. Only after that, you can get to compensation, which needs to be negotiated.”