Petronas ad: Retract or face legal action, Leo Burnett tells filmmaker

The agency said a demand letter has been issued by its lawyers to Tan Chui Mui and Da Huang Pictures.

“Despite an earlier explanation to Da Huang Pictures by Leo Burnett that their treatment and the Rubber Boy webfilm have different storylines, Tan Chui Mui continued to make these false allegations through her Facebook page,” the agency said in a statement today.

Leo Burnett said key elements in the Petronas Chinese New Year advertisement including the message, the characters, the setting in the rubber estate and the emotions were part of the agency script, which was shared with three directors in 2014 including Da Huang.

Neither Tan Chui Mu nor Da Huang Pictures furnished those key elements, the agency said.

“There appears to be an intention to cause damage to the Leo Burnett’s reputation and that of its clients through these social media postings, which were shared and later picked up by mainstream media.

“In order to safeguard Leo Burnett’s name and reputation, and that of its clients, Leo Burnett has no alternative but to initiate legal proceedings if Tan Chui Mui or Da Huang Pictures refuse to retract the statements,” the agency said.

Tan, in a series of Facebook postings, had claimed that her team from Da Huang Pictures had proposed a story to the agency, with casting, locations, reference films, and also a full script, but the story was not selected that year.

Tan had uploaded several statements on Facebook, claiming that the idea for the advertisement had been plagiarised, as it was based on the experience on her childhood friend.