“If no-one notices your advertising everything else is academic,” remarked the greatest advertising creative director William Bernbach. Everyone wants to grab people’s attention and in the way of snatching it, sometimes we pass controversial comments, we write debatable matters, we show something very inappropriate. On the other side, it is also a matter of perspective. What a small group of people thinks about a thing doesn’t mean the larger one is observing the same thing.
The entire matter is totally relatable to a very recent incident in the Indian advertising market, where the ‘Shahnshah’ of the Bollywood Amitabh Bachchan and her daughter Shweta’s very first television commercial appearance ad break became the victim of the controversies. It is about the recent promotional marketing ad by Kalyan Jewellers featuring Shweta Bachchan Nanda, the daughter of the all-time superstar Amitabh Bachchan along with his side.
What this ad about?
In this one and half minute ad break, Big B portrayed the role of an old man who got the double credit of pension in his bank account and pays a visit to the bank along with his daughter Shweta. The ad break depicts the negligent and lenient attitude of some bank employees towards this old man when he tries to approach them. In the end, when they reach in the office of the branch manager the strong message of trust and honesty is delivered by Amitabh Bachchan.
So what’s the issue?
After watching this ad break, the larger part of the society sensed the message of trust and loyalty at the same time there is a chunk of around 320000 bank officers, under the organisation naming All India Bank Officers’ Confederation, who condemned this ad break for screwing up their image before the nation. They believe that the ad is delivering a wrong message about the banking system. The Confederation also gave an ultimatum to the Kalyan Jewellers to sue them for casting aspersion of millions of people with this advertisement.
The secretary of the All India Bank Officers’ Confederation made an allegation on the Kalyan Jeweller that the advertisement is purely for the commercial gain and it totally disgusting with the aim of creating distrust in the banking system.
The reaction of Kalyan Jewellers
The leading jewellery group came forward in a rapid manner and rejected the allegations made by the Confederation by conveying that the advertisement is purely a fiction. They decided to withdraw this controversial advertising from all the media channels. Apart from withdrawing it, they also issued an apology to the nation with the following message:
We sincerely regret the unintentional hurting the sentiments of the people and we are withdrawing this advertisement from all media channels.
The Ultimate Conclusion
So, now the question arises who is right and who is wrong? Every coin has two sides, similarly, this advertisement can be seen from two aspects either positively or negatively. Might be before reading this article, you liked this advertisement and never gave a thought to all these criticisms. In the eyes of the one group, the central theme of this advertisement was showing the trust and honesty of citizens. On the other hand, the other group consider it as an insult to their working attitude. So the whole crux is about the perspective of the people. The way advertisement ends up, some people relate it with Nirav Modi scam also. As he spoiled the image of the jewellery industry and market also. While some people accepted that the real attitude of some banks’ officers is the same as revealed here. But generalising it is not fair. Further, whether the advertisement was right or wrong? It’s the matter of individual’s judgements. Kalyan Jewellers decided to withdraw the ad break maybe because they understand the consequences of these controversies and impact on their goodwill.
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