An elderly man accompanied by his daughter is sent from desk to desk in a bank, till the manager is shamefaced when he tells him his pension has been credited twice and that he wants to return it. The advertisement was slammed by a banking union for depicting banks in a negative light, and creating distrust in the banking system.
And now, leading jewellery chain Kalyan Jewellers has withdrawn the 90-second advertisement featuring Amitabh Bachchan and his daughter Shweta Bachchan Nanda in Hindi, and Big B and Manju Warrier in the Malayalam version.
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According to a report in The News Minute, a notice was issued to the jewellery company by the 320,000-strong All India Bank Officers Confederation, said to be the largest association of bankers in the country. It said the theme, tone and tenor of the jingle was disgusting, derogatory and aimed to create distrust in the banking system, for pure commercial gain. It was also said that the advertisement portrayed banks in negative light, hurting the sentiment of millions of personnel and stakeholders, and was a direct attempt to ruin the trust and confidence of billions of citizens in banks.
However, Kalyan Jewellers rejected the allegation, saying it was “pure fiction”. But, in a statement, the Executive Director of Kalyan Jewellers Ramesh Kalyanaraman apologised for the inadvertent hurt caused and said they were withdrawing the advertisement from all media. “We understand that the advertisement has hurt sentiments of some people, including members of our esteemed banking community. Any such hurtful interpretation being drawn is unintended. We state that the creative advertisement was a work of fiction and not a reflection of banking employees at large. Along with crores of Indians, we acknowledge the valuable contribution of the banking community to our country.”
Incidentally, the advertisement was woven around the jewellers’ tagline of honesty. Soon after it released, the actor took to Twitter, and said it marked an emotional moment in his life.
T 2870 – Emotional moment for me .. tears welling up every time I see it .. daughters are the BEST !! pic.twitter.com/7Jes2GDPBo
— Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) July 17, 2018