Exactly 5 months down the line and we have had no resolution from Unilever, regarding the use of my daughter’s picture and change of name for a fraudulent promo. Even though I thought we were making progress following discussions, I obviously was TOTALLY WRONG!!!

The last meeting we held with their representatives from Lagos ended with them waiting on me to take a decision. After consultations with family members, friends and associates, I did take a decision and sent an email to my lawyer to forward to them. Below is the email sent on March 2nd, 2018, which is very self explanatory.

“Good day Barrister,

Trust you are doing fine.

As a follow up to our agreement with the “representatives” of Unilever Nigeria PLC, I have concluded meetings with family members and associates. Our points are as follows:

1. On November 3rd, 2017 the picture of our daughter was branded, her name illegally changed and posted on the Facebook page of Pears Nigeria. This singular ILLEGAL act has brought my family so much unwanted exposure, embarrassment and trauma as you already aware.

2. On November 15th, 2017 we wrote them a letter requesting them to respond within 7 days. They totally and blatantly ignored us and only called weeks later, which was on the same day that I had narrated my story on social media. As a follow up, we received their response dated December 18th, 2017, which came as a bigger insult. Their response, insensitive and impenitent as it was, now turned the whole table around and tried to make my family seem as the culprits. Whoever wrote that letter on their behalf totally ignored the fact Unilever Nigeria PLC, makers of Pears Baby products, were the ones who had wronged us.

3. On January 11th, 2018 we were visited by 2 gentlemen, the CEO of the company that runs online promos for Unilever Nigeria PLC and a partner lawyer to Unilever Nigeria PLC, who were supposed “representatives” of Unilever Nigeria PLC. After, finally having the decency and appropriacy of sending these gentlemen to sit and talk with us, as should have been done from the very beginning, we decided to use a compassionate mind to accept their explanation and apology BUT grant them some time to go back and discuss with the company on our demands regarding being compensated for the damages that had been caused.


4. On March 1st, 2018, we were then visited again by these 2 gentlemen. At this meeting, we were made to understand that because of an indemnity clause in the contract between Unilever Nigeria PLC and advertising firm, which does not in any way concern me or my family, Unilever Nigeria PLC had exonerated themselves and pushed the whole burden of this blunder onto the advertising firm. Based on this very notable fact, we were then pleaded with to accept an offer of N1m (one million) Naira as compensation for damages. This as you are very aware, is not even up to 1% of our demand. Regardless of the percentage value of offer to demand and aside the fact that the expenses we have already incurred have greatly exceeded N5m, if we also put into consideration the foreign expenses so far made, our daughter and the damages they have caused her, and our entire household is worth far more than N1m.


Based on these 4 VERY IMPORTANT points stated above, we have decided as follows:

1. Even though an apology from one Mrs. Anjorin, the supposed person who submitted our daughter’s picture without our consent, has been published on various social media pages belonging to Pears Nigeria, we will still require an official apology letter from Unilever Nigeria PLC directly to us to be posted on same platforms.

2. Putting into considerations the developments we were informed of between Unilever Nigeria PLC and the advertising firm and the pleadings of 2 gentlemen that came to meet with us, we have decided to reduce our demand from the initial amount of Bleep to Bleep. Yes, it is a fact that no amount whatsoever can fix and/or repair the damages caused, but if any amount is to be settled let it be something worth settling.

As you already know being my lawyer, I am not a desperate person and not out to make any form of profit using any member of my family, BUT I stand for justice. You are also very aware that we have similar cases with other companies and settlement attempts they have made, which were far more than N1m that we refused.

I do admit, I am quite saddened by the way Unilever Nigeria PLC has shoved the whole burden to the advertising firm as explained by the CEO, but I would rather no member of my family nor myself interfere in the contracts and business between 2 establishments. Even though we are deeply sorry for any setbacks this will cause the advertising firm, but it is extremely important to remember that we have been the victims and nobody else. And as far as we are concerned, our issue is with Unilever Nigeria PLC and nobody else.

You can go ahead an inform them of our decisions as we are going to patiently wait till the end of March 2018 for this issue to be COMPLETELY concluded. We sincerely hope it does not stretch any further than it already has.


Thank you.”

Even though this is a direct quote of the email I sent to my lawyer, I have removed the old and new demand amount, but I assure you a substantial amount was deducted based on the circumstances. I have also removed the names of the 2 gentlemen who were representatives as I do not at this time have any personal issues with either of them. But, up until now, we have not received any response and quite frankly, I have ran out patience. While my lawyer is filing a suit against #unilevernigeria, I want this story to go round on social media, online news medias, print medias, etc. I don’t think we need to remind #unilevernigeria that if this crap was done in the US or UK, they would have had it settled a long time ago. So is it safe to say that they assume we don’t know our rights in Nigeria?

As I stated in my email to my lawyer, I am not interested in any business between 2 establishments. All I know is #pearsnigeria a brand of #unilevernigeria;

• Used my daughter’s picture and changed her name WITHOUT my consent or that of my wife, who happen to be her parents and legal guardians.

• Used my daughter’s picture for an online promotion. In marketing, promotion refers to any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or issue. The aim of promotion is to increase awareness, create interest, generate sales or create brand loyalty. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promotion_(marketing)

• Exposed my daughter and entire family publicly thereby invading on our privacy.

• Ran a fake and fraudaulent promo by lifting a picture of my daughter from my wife’s Instagram page and changing her name so we would not be able to trace it.

Like I have said earlier ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!! I want this to go as far as possible until justice is served. Kindly rebroadcast tagging them, their international offices and their products on every social media platform and please link up any online news or blog sites that you may know. In the meantime, I will also be contacting some big print media and TV houses in and out of Nigeria.

I am a husband and a father and will do whatever it takes to always protect my family.

Admin I would appreciate if this is moved to the front page so that there will be #justiceforfaria.

Poster Pls don't listen to your lawyers too much if the company offer you 3_5m Pls collect the money & close this case else they the company will rather use that money to turn ur case upside-down, shishi you won't see again, trust you know Nigeria is a very corrupt country anything goes

As far as i understand from lawyers letter i dont think you have any ase against unilever as the picture was used by some lady to make gain and not directly by unilever.
Also they are not direct organiser of competition and they have outsourced it to some other company.i think is that Company which is responsible for verification of winner but they dint do it.
Still if u want to sue them u can make them co defendants as for me i think us women that used your daughter pictures will be first defendant.
Also this brings out a very important point of use of social media and how far we want our privacy to be invaded by strangers. Most of social medials have filters and it on us how we use it.
For eg my own Facebook nobody can search me online using my email or mobile if he or she is not a friend of friend.
Be safe online world is not all gloomy as it seems.
My view no offense intended and no litigation can be made on my response here

pat1612:
As far as i understand from lawyers letter i dont think you have any ase against unilever as the picture was used by some lady to make gain and not directly by unilever.
Also they are not direct organiser of competition and they have outsourced it to some other company.i think is that Company which is responsible for verification of winner but they dint do it.
Still if u want to sue them u can make them co defendants as for me i think us women that used your daughter pictures will be first defendant.
Also this brings out a very important point of use of social media and how far we want our privacy to be invaded by strangers. Most of social medials have filters and it on us how we use it.
For eg my own Facebook nobody can search me online using my email or mobile if he or she is not a friend of friend.
Be safe online world is not all gloomy as it seems.
My view no offense intended and no litigation can be made on my response here

You seem to forget that Unilever is the Principal here. They only contracted it out to an agency. So therefore, my problem is with them and their problem is with their agency. Afterall, the gains of the promo belong to Unilever. Besides my daughter's picture has already been branded a Pears Baby and so they are the ones who have faulted. Secondly, their terms and conditions stated clearly that all participants should have a valid ID, yet the prize money was paid without that confirmation as well.

make realistic demands,which one is foreign expenses?

I think the woman who lifted the picture from your wife's page is the one who is at fault.

Pears is offering that compensation in place of the original price awarded to the woman who used your baby's picture.

I don't really see a case here.

orangb:
I think the woman who lifted the picture from your wife's page is the one who is at fault.

Pears is offering that compensation in place of the original price awarded to the woman who used your baby's picture.

I don't really see a case here.

Now the woman who lifted the pic, is at fault (if there truly is a woman and not a story), agreed. But Pears is at fault in the sense that:

1. They are the principal in the promo.

2. They breached their terms and conditions by paying the prize money without confirming and ascertaining she was the rightful parent of the child.

3. Pears have the right to use any pic submitted for their benefit once submitted to them and that's what they did by branding the pic and putting it on their Facebook page where I saw it.

So in essence, it is Pears who have offended me and my family by illegally using my daughter's pic and even changing her name. And in turn Pears have an issue with their advertising agency and that agency has a problem with thr person who sent the pic. So it's quite a chain and we are heading to court.

medube:


Now the woman who lifted the pic, is at fault (if there truly is a woman and not a story), agreed. But Pears is at fault in the sense that:

1. They are the principal in the promo.

2. They breached their terms and conditions by paying the prize money without confirming and ascertaining she was the rightful parent of the child.

3. Pears have the right to use any pic submitted for their benefit once submitted to them and that's what they did by branding the pic and putting it on their Facebook page where I saw it.

So in essence, it is Pears who have offended me and my family by illegally using my daughter's pic and even changing her name. And in turn Pears have an issue with their advertising agency and that agency has a problem with thr person who sent the pic. So it's quite a chain and we are heading to court.

I understand your grievances but to be honest with you, Pears didn't use the picture illegally and neither did they change the name voluntarily.

The mistake they made was not confirming the identity of the parents and for that, you have the right to request that they:
- take down the picture
- pay you the price awarded to the impostor.
- provide information about the so called impostor so that you can proceed to file a litigation against her ( If they refuse to do this, then you can assume that the impostor story is a lie, you can then sue Pears directly and they would in turn sue the advertising agency)

By the way, your baby girl is so cute. It's no wonder that her picture won the contest.

Is the 1 mill they offering for what? My bro sue their ass for a lot more. This is a winnable case....if its in the united states, your made for life in fact, The company would have preferred out of court settlement cause it would be better and cheaper for them