On this Buro Renkema webpage with the Dutch title: 'taken by the bank', there is an interactive animation that makes fun of the ABN AMRO take-over. It shows a flash animation with choices for: balance enquiry, savings, securities and payments. There are a number of funny items in the animation:
- a systems check in the beginning,
- the name of the bank keeps on changing to include merger partners as well as the bank of africa,
- the savings applications ridicules outsourcing to other countries,
- the securities choice implies that you don't need experience to invest in shares
- the payments application asks the customer to choose what the payment is for (daily goods, etc), states that the annual shareholder meeting wants to know if this is really necessary and upon the yes says: fine if you want to buy it but not with our money,
- an ending that says: new name: Rijkman Groenink Bank; you save, we grab.
The animation is out on the web since May 15, but only now has hit the radar of national news. And ABN AMRO has formally demanded the makers to get rid of the animation as it considers it to be unnecessarily grieving. Which is an interesting line of thought in a situation where regardless of the outcome of biddings, the losing CEO takes a lot of money home (which could be viewed as a bit grieving towards shareholders or customers..?)
Well, with so many court cases in the air, why not add this one to the list. More in particular as the case of: The bigger they are, the harder they fall...?
Update June 11: Nu.nl reports that ABN AMRO will not pursue litigation. Most likely as a result of all the media and weblog attention and the fact they had a weak case in the first place.
