It is not likely that a profit oriented organisation will deliberately malign a large segment of the community on which its survival depends. Most organisations attempt to be recognised as responsible and community friendly in order to keep the organisations as going concerns.
But an organisation’s action can be termed offensive by certain community, as in the present case of Sterling Bank, when the entire environment or interest of the community is not taken into consideration.
Sterling Bank had during the recent Easter celebration shared an Easter message which compared the resurrection of Jesus Christ to locally made bread in Nigeria called “Agege Bread”. The message said “Like Agege Bread, He rose.” This was followed with a picture of bread divided into two halves.
In some environment, the Advert could have been justified as a marvel creative work, depending on the viewer’s perspective. Akonte Ekine, a PR practitioner believed that the “association with Agege brand of bread was an attempt to use the word of Jesus describing Himself as bread of Life.”
The tag of ‘Agege bread’ considered very low, cheap and perhaps cancer genic because of the usage poor ingredients such as Potassium Bromate, was perhaps the pain point. The Christian community finds it offensive, obtuse and mundane to associate the sacred resurrection of Jesus Christ to Agege bread at a time the Christian community worldwide is marking the ceremony which is a time of spiritual reflection.
In attempt to create an engaging Advert that will perhaps resonate with its customers across board, the advert message failed to take into consideration the sensitive of cultures, established laws and religious beliefs especially in a society like Nigeria where religion and culture are sacrosanct. It also failed to get approval by the appropriate authority before publishing the advert message. This process, as required by APCON law could have assisted to spot and obviate the embarrassment.
Immediately after the advert was published, Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, APCON, whose responsibility it is to vet and ensure that advert messages conform with standards, reacted, describing it as provocative and insensitive.
In a statement signed by its Chief Executive, Olalekan Fadolapo, APCON said it has observed with displeasure the insensitive and provocative Easter celebration advertisement by Sterling Bank Plc which compared the resurrection of Christ with Agege Bread.
Read also: APCON to sanction Sterling Bank for offensive Easter Advert
The organisation said the advert was exposed without the approval of the statutory panel responsible for vetting advertisement and that it was against the ethical principles guiding advertising practice in the country.
According to Fadolapo,” The distasteful advertisement was neither submitted nor approved for exposure by the Advertising Standards Panel (ASP), the statutory Panel charged with the responsibility of ensuring that advertisements conform with the prevailing laws of the Federation as well as the code of ethics of Advertising in Nigeria”.
APCON therefore said it will take necessary action to ensure that Sterling Bank is sanctioned for the exposure of such offensive advertisement according to law and that no religious belief or faith is ridiculed or any blasphemous advertisement exposed in any guise.
In his view, Bolaji Abimbola, the CEO of Indigo Communication, a PR agency based in Lagos put it directly that the Advert was actually in bad taste considering the sensitivity of religion surrounding the subject matter.
“The Easter season is of sober reflection as it is a period to commiserate the death and the resurrection of Jesus, which is celebrated by Christians worldwide. No pun should have been used in such communication. It would be seen as a desecration of the religion and can snowball into severe chaos”.
Abimbola however commended the bank for steps it has taken to calm situation. “The bank has done well by first apologizing, but I think that it is just the first step; the leadership of the bank needs to take it a step further by having multi-level engagement with the leaders of the Christian faith in Nigeria through CAN as well as with regulatory agencies and other relevant stakeholders.
“The bank needs to engage the services of an experienced PR Agency with a proven track record of crisis management to manage this crisis and win back the hearts of the customers and the general Nigerian public. The company also needs to review its communication policy to avoid future occurrences to put control measures in place”, Abimbola said.
On the lessons of Sterling Bank action, Abimbola said the bank and other organizations should always consider the PR liabilities of their actions and inactions. “Every communication should be checked for the resultant impact on the corporate image and the organization’s overall reputation, the message, the tonality, and even the unintended innuendos and perception of the receiver of the message. Organizations should engage PR practitioners more and involve them in the vetting and approval process of the communication campaigns. They should ensure that the Agencies (Advertising, Digital, PR, or Experiential) work together in an integrated manner and not like islands”.
In another development, Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN has requested that the bank be punished for what it called “ungodly, wicked, insensitive and deliberately provocative” advert.
Though the bank has apologised but CAN as quoted by a report said “The purported apology did not come from a penitent heart. How can someone in his right mind describe the risen Christ as a loaf of bread? That is insulting, ridiculous and a mockery of Jesus Christ”.
Also reacting, Muyiwa Akintunde, CEO of Leap Communications and Publisher of Breezy News said the advert shouldn’t have been conceived, not to talk of being approved. He said religion is a sensitive issue, and more so in our clime. “Those behind the Sterling Bank brand have lived long enough to know that such content would attract opprobrium. They therefore can be accused of being deliberate in their action”.
Commending the bank for its apology, Akintunde said the bank should not have joined issues with the opposing side. “It’s initial response attempted to justify the action even when it meant to apologise. It was however good that the CEO came into the picture eventually and doused tense with his genuine apology and concern”, he said.
Some other commentators who believe that the creative work which they think was done internally would not be as bad as it is if an external experienced agency had handled it.
Some organisations execute their jobs with internal workforce to save cost, meet deadline but some experts argue that the internal creative staffs lack wide industry experience to handle some jobs. Where ever the Sterling Bank ad was created, analysts say it was perhaps unintentionally in bad fate.
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
