Sterling apologizes for inciting tweeter war with controversial artwork

Sterling Bank has pulled down the controversial art work that causes a subtle twitter war among a number of Nigerian banks.
The tweet which smartly took a jab at some banks using their logos and building features was said to have been frowned at by the Central Bank of Nigeria, who demanded that the offensive tweet be deleted and apologies rendered.
The tweet read, “Shoot for the moon, become a star – it’s the least you deserve.” included a graphic showing a person, perhaps a customer, on a spaceship shooting for the moon. The moon in this case is a Sterling Bank logo.
The contentious illustration also included a boy surfing on a board with what clearly looked like an Access Bank board. It also included someone looking out of a window of a cube-looking house with a color similar to GTB. Then two boys each rode on an elephant and horse respectively in a subtle reference to First Bank and Union Bank.
The art work immediately lit up tweeter as some of the affected banks responded in kind with their own tweets. But Sterling bank has since deleted the tweet and apologized to all banks the likeness of whose logos and buildings featured in the referenced tweet.
“Our apologies go out to all the banks -the likeness of whose logos & buildings featured in a post which we have since deleted. We remain committed to building an organisation that enables our youth find expression and we will continue to do this in the most responsible fashion,” Sterling Bank said in its tweet.
But if the short-lived artwork was intended to stir up talkability around Sterling Bank and create some awareness, then it was a success. And while the regulator may have felt the tweet was offensive and of bad taste, most social media users so the lighter side of it. The graphics was retweeted over 2000 times and also made the trending list.