THRISSUR: Kalyan Jewellers has withdrawn the controversial advertisement that landed the famous jewellery chain in the eye of a protest storm from different quarters, especially from the banking sector employees.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman, executive director of the group, which has business interests spread over India and abroad, including the Gulf countries, expressed the Group’s regret on airing such an ad that has hurt many, especially the people in the banking community.
The letter didn’t hide the name of the ad agency that has worked behind this ad, which has invited in disgrace to the group in the name of building ‘Trust’ among its millions of customers.
The letter signed by the executive director of the group begins by stating, “L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, one of our creative advertising agencies executed a story line for the fifth edition of our Trust campaign series and the same was released earlier this month.”
It went on, “However 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 banking community to our country.”
The letter concluded by stating, “We sincerely regret the inadvertent hurt caused and we withdraw the advertisement from all media with immediate effect.”
