Bank union claims Amitabh Bachchan’s ad is disgusting, aims at creating distrust

The Kalyan Jewellers’ Ad which is one-and-a-half minute long has managed to cause quite a stir among the bankers association as they seem to have found the advertisement offensive and derogatory.

All India Bank Officers Confederation general secretary Soumya Datta alleged that the theme, tone and tenor of the
Kalyan Jewellers’ ad which features Amitabh Bachchan and his daughter Shweta were “disgusting, derogatory, to say the least and is aimed to create distrust in the banking system, for pure commercial gain.”

The ad portrayed how banks treat their customers, pushing them from one counter to another. When finally two bank officers refuse to help them they are referred to the bank manager. The manager is portrayed in a warmer light than the other staff as he checks the passbook and finds nothing wrong as the pension amount of Rs 5,500 has already been credited.

The All India Bank Officers’ Conferderation (AIBOC), which has 3.2 lakh members, has seriously objected to the advertisement. Their grievance is not only against the brand, but also its ambassador Amitabh Bachchan for “manifesting a negative and false image of banks in the advertisement for their personal aggrandisement.”

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Kalyan Jewellers rejected the allegation, saying it was “pure fiction.” “We understand that your esteemed association feels that the bankers have been portrayed in bad light. We state it on record that it is a pure fiction and at no point we have intended to generalize the bank officers at large,” Kalyan jewellers said in a letter to Datta.

“Please accept our unconditional disclaimer for the same. We shall within three working days from today add ‘characters and situations depicted are fictional. The brand does not intend to disrespect or malign any person or community’ before the advertisement,” it said.

“The advertisement portrays banks in bad light, casting aspersion, hurting the sentiment of millions of personnel, stakeholders and is a direct attempt to ruin the trust and confidence of billions of citizenries in banks,” Datta said.

Datta said “we express our strong resentment against the management of Kalyan Jewellers and Mr Bachchan who have manifested a negative and false image of the Banks in the ad for their personal aggrandisement.”

“We deem it as a case of defamation to all the banks as a whole,” it said.

In a blightful incident where the Bachchans are also being under the scanner for the Panama case, the ad comes in the wake of bringing Big B’s following’s faith in him down.

Abraham Shaji John, AIBOC’s Kerala unit secretary, also condemned the advertisement, saying “it has defamed bank employees.”

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