Tuesday, December 28, 2010

That Pro-Iran Ad Removed

I received this in response to my inquiry on the bank advertising Iran (background), this ad:

Here:

Dear Mr. Medad:

Your email correspondence directed to Diane Bergan, Senior Vice President – Public Affairs, regarding an “Unlocking the World’s Potential” campaign advertisement has been forwarded to the Executive Offices of HSBC Bank USA, N.A.

First and foremost on behalf of HSBC Bank I apologize for the concern which our advertisement in Greece caused. The advertisement was part of an HSBC global campaign and one of many which identified simple but surprising facts as a way to facilitate a conversation about unlocking the world’s potential.

So while our aim is to encourage debate and discussion we certainly have no intent to cause offense or be insulting, in fact quite the opposite.
Given the clear level of offense that this advertisement has caused the decision has been taken to remove it from our global campaign.

We respect your position and thank you for taking the time to raise your concerns with us.

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Moog
Senior Vice President
Head of Customer Experience


Never yield on you right to have your voice heard.

^

5 comments:

AKUS said...

Fantastic! Kol Hakovod!

Of course, the amazing thing is that these lunatics would actually believe this nonsense enough to make an ad about it.

(At the least, if there was any truth to it, it was probably based on some false statistics such as ...Of the thousands of movies made in the USA, 4% were made by women. Of the four movies made in Iran, one was made by a woman ...)

annie said...

Kol hakavod! And 2 cheers at least to HSBC for their polite letter to you. Quite unusual in this day and age.

Anonymous said...

Very unfortunate!!! I can't imagine why you find this ad offensive!!! It WAS a very interesting fact for me... and it does in fact unlucks the facts around us... Why you are afraid of a simple good fact about a country that doesn't have much good things left to it and it used to be one of the greatest cultures in the world!!!! It is like you are afraid of knowing a simple good fact about a not favorable person!!! I think your email was offensive... weather they remove the ad or not, the fact wouldn't change... There are MORE famale film makers in Iran than US!

none said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

how can it be offensive to you?

do you think that iranian filmmakers are government doggies?!

there's something called google. google iranian filmmakers and see how the iranian house of cinema closed by government or how much iranian filmmakers went to prison in these years. or you can watch some of movies by iranian female filmmakers and then think again: IT"S A FACT YOU CAN'T CHANGE!

and iranian people are in lots of pressure because of their government. THAT'S ANOTHER FACT and israeli attack can't change it.

a little hope, a little kindness and a little understanding will help, i guess.

and yes, i cant put my name in here! guess it's someone from Iran.