Recently, an established Jeweller in India Kalyan Jewellers had released an advertisement screening the famous actor Mr Amitabh Bachchan, (and Swaitha Bachchan Nander for the Hindi Version and Malayam Actress for the South Indian version).
The advertisement portrayed a scenario where a pensioner wrongly received a pension twice a month instead of having received it only once a monthThe advertisement shows the father and daughter visiting a bank regarding the father’s pension being credited twice, and they had attended the bank to notify this and request the money to be returned. The bank officer then asked him to retain the funds wrongly received as the procedure to return the money was “tiresome and cumbersome”! “Who will even know” is what the manager asked Mr Bachchan in the advertisement. The advertisement then portrays the bank officials/officers conveying to a pensioner as to why he would bother to in fact do such an act in this day and age!
You can check out the advertisement at the below link if you haven’t watched as yet: https://twitter.com/SrBachchan/status/1019210031915560960
However, subsequent to the advertisement becoming very popular, it got into trouble for its portrayal of the bank officers, which according to banker’s association in India was conducted in bad taste. They stated that the advertisement degraded and aimed to create the distrust in the banking system, amongst public and reasonable people. The jewellery group issued a statement recently where it confirmed that the advertisement would be removed from all media with immediate effect and apologised stating;-
“We understand that the advertisement has hurt sentiments of some people including members of our esteem banking community, All India officer’s Confederation (AIBOC). Any such hurtful interpretation being drawn is unintended, we state that the advertisement was a work of fiction and not a reflection of banking employees at large. We sincerely regret the inadvertent hurt caused and withdraw the advertisement from all media within immediate effect”.
At all stages, one has to be vigilant and prudent to ensure that information conveyed is at no stage derogatory or defamatory to any other person or organisation at large. If such information is found to be derogatory or defamatory, a victim will be eligible to obtain damages for the same. To avoid the same, one has to be prudent at all times that the information passed around; (especially in the current social media) does not convey or disseminate facts which are untrue.
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