One can ask them to advertise for you and many famous civilians would most willingly do that.
Con.. it takes a toll on the moral levels of the army who see a civilian, just a famous guy, being conferred something he does not really deserve.[\quote]
What are you trying to say ???? That famous people will come in Ads of IAF asking people to join. That will be much more difficult to arrange as also costly. Where as look at this..... they confer Sachin with the title and the whole of media was discussing it and thus it results in a gigantic publicity with less effort. If Sachin would have appeared in IAF AD's it would not have been worth noting, but now many are discussing. Take the example of this site only, the thread is here because Sachin was made Group Captain, it would not have been here had Sachin just appeared in IAF's Ad.
Secondly, no one in armed force feels envy at a famous citizen being conferred any title since they are aware this is just for branding and nothing else. They know he is not supposed to have any impact on their promotions.