MANILA – BDO Unibank has apologized for its latest “#WeFindWays” campaign, which has been pulled off last week after almost immediate backlash for allegedly being “insensitive.”
“We apologize that the ads have been very insensitive. The posts have since been removed and we have taken steps to resolve the matter internally,” BDO said in an official statement released in Facebook.
BDO posted a series of ads last November 3, making the audience choose between situations on how they plan to spend their savings. One of the most heavily criticized of the ads was a photo of an environmental activist and a traveler with the caption “Save the environment, or save up to see places?”
BDO hurriedly pulled out the ad on Facebook last November 13 but the company soon learned that the online community won’t easily forget.
Facebook users like social activist and writer Renee Juliene Karunungan took screenshots of the ads and reposted them online, even bringing up controversies associated with its parent company SM Group of Companies owned by Henry Sy.
So BDO Unibank deleted this post. But of course there is a reason screenshots were made. Im putting it back so that we…
Posted by Renee Juliene M. Karunungan on Thursday, November 12, 2015
In addition to bad copy, people also slammed BDO’s impassive responses on Facebook. Facebook user Jappy Lim quipped: “Not only is this ad seriously misinformed, but your fb admin is a robot whose only preprogrammed response to criticism is ‘thanks for your feedback.'”
Some even asked for the ad agency and bank officials behind the campaign to be held accountable. Here’s a list from Rappler of Facebook posts clamoring for answers:
