Abu Dhabi: An Indian businessman has threatened to sue a local bank for misrepresenting his company in their television commercial.
The 45-second TV commercial promoting the bank’s collateral free business loans shows ‘Summit Trading’ closing down after getting a raw deal from other banks.
The owner of a 35-year old company by the same name said the commercial depicts his firm in bad light.
“Ever since the commercial went on air, we have been flooded with calls from our business partners and traders asking if we are shutting down. It has created panic in the market, said Nandakumar. T.M, director of Summit Trading located on Abu Dhabi’s Electra Street.
The bank’s TV commerical shows the owner of a small firm frog-leaping out of his office carrying a carton after evil-looking bank officials take over his establishment. The camera then pans out to closed door where a signboard reads ‘Summit Trading’.
Still on air
Nandakumar said following his written complaint on March 2, the bank has blurred his firm’s name from the advertisement on YouTube but the commercial is still on air on EMasala and a few other local TV channels. “It’s very upsetting because it’s affecting our business,” Nandkumar said.
The bank management, however maintains the logo used in the commercial is different from that of Summit Trading. “The referred commercial did not have any reference to your organisation. As you would note, the company name and logo used in the business loan commercial was not that of Summit Trading Company LLC,” the bank’s head of personal banking wrote to Summit Trading in an email response to their complaint. “The bank has further ensured the commercial has been amended to rule out any misunderstanding,” he added.
However, Nandakumar is not buying into that and is threatening legal action against the bank. “We have a huge goodwill that we built around 35 years. We cannot let just anyone ruin our reputation in a thoughtless and malicious way,” he told XPRESS.
