Following
are text and scan of a letter I received today via eMail attachment from
Stephen Urquhart, president, Omega SA. Courtesy copy notations made
below the signature reference Mr. G. Nick Hayek, CEO, Swatch Group, and
Ms. Corline Faivet, President, Swatch USA.
(Thumbnail image at left is linked to
full-size scan of original letter.)
Dear Mr Deaton
OMEGA Advertising for James Bond
Watches
I hereby acknowledge receipt of your
correspondence dated 17 and 21 February 2006 respectively concerning the
above subject, on which I have been fully briefed for some time.
First of all I would like to inform
you that OMEGA has never intentionally made any advertising whatsoever
presenting the James Bond character with any product other than the
Seamaster 300 watch.
Nevertheless, there has indeed been
advertising featuring Pierce Brosnan (who was an OMEGA ambassador until
31 December 2005) with many different OMEGA watches, although no
reference was ever made to James Bond in the copy.
We do, however, concede that there was
an error on the OMEGA internet site, which could have been interpreted
as an association between James Bond and a different watch. This has now
been rectified and we now consider this whole issue to be closed.
OMEGA apologises for any confusion
which may have arisen, and you are kindly requested to note that a new
James Bond section will be available shortly on our internet site.
Yours sincerely,
Stephen Urquhart
President
OMEGA
cc: G N Hayek
C Faivet
Before anything else, I certainly
want to say that the very fact that Mr. Urquhart has acknowledged and
responded to the very serious concerns raised on this matter is a
positive indication here. I also personally appreciate the courtesy that
it shows.
However — if, in the third paragraph
of his letter, Mr. Urquhart seeks to differentiate Internet
representations from any other form of advertising — we are in stark
disagreement.
As
I pointed out almost a month ago, here is how the Omega SA
website appeared, advertising its "Watch Selections James Bond" on
February 6, 2006.
Omega URL
http://www.omegawatches.com/index.php?id=217 for this page is clearly
visible in the navigation window here. And "reference" on this page is
unquestionably "made to James Bond in the copy."
Further,
as I write this, Omega inexplicably persists in absolutely promoting its
Seamaster 2535.80 GMT as a James Bond watch — with distinctive 007
backdrop and, yes, "reference ... made to James Bond in the copy."
Once again, I pose
the
question that closed my Post on February 7.
"In what Bond film did the Omega
2535.80 appear?
"You know, the watch on the right in
the current Omega SA "Watch Selection James Bond" page,
the one updated in the last 12
hours. Answer? None that I know of."
With all due respect, the core
problem here has not been "rectified." Clearly, some of us still have
work to do.
"http://www.omegawatches.com/index.php?id=217" on Omega website
<LINK>
Seamaster 2535.80.00 GMT product page on Omega website
<LINK>
"Watch Selections James Bond" on Omega website
<LINK>
