Polaroid yanks Y2K ad over bankers' protests

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RAID commercial yes, Polaroid no. Just what are these bankers afraid of?

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 30 (Reuters) - To bankers, at least, the Y2K bug is no laughing matter, as instant film maker Polaroid Corp. (NYSE:PRD - news) found out.

The Cambridge, Mass.,-based company on Wednesday said it has stopped running a humorous television ad to promote its PopShots disposable camera after the American Bankers Association complained the spot could hurt consumer confidence in the banking industry.

The ad, which had been running on network and cable TV since mid-June, showed a bank customer snapping an instant picture of his bank balance at an ATM. At the strike of midnight, the balance drops, then leaps by $1 million.

Created by longtime Polaroid agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners of San Francisco, the ad had been intended to reach young customers in a lighthearted fashion, Polaroid spokeswoman Nancy Childs said. But a complaining letter from the ABA convinced Polaroid the ad was ``disaffecting'' a chunk of the audience, she said.

The ad's creators could find no good way to modify it, so Polaroid decided to stop running it, Childs said.

-- y2k dave (xsdaa111@hotmail.com), July 01, 1999

Answers

Dave, this was covered yesterday in the following thread:

Polaroid

-- Bingo1 (howe9@pop.shentel.net), July 01, 1999.


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