Over the last few months Natwest has been running a new advertising campaign, which seems be a cynical attempt to prove to us all that bankers are actually friendly, fluffy and approachable people (human, you might say) and not the reckless, greedy, morally bankrupt arseholes we know them to be.
Gone are Natwest's comedy ads of old (starring Kevin Bishop), which ironically depicted bankers as uncaring, out of touch, obnoxious morons - who wilfully ignored the suggestions of a young intern who tried in vain to put the customers needs first - and in come the real-life bankers and financial advisors from local branches. It's a bit like watching the Halifax ads, but mercifully without the irritating song and dance routine.
The new ads generally show Natwest financial advisors playfully interacting with their customers either in-branch or visiting homes. It's as cosy as watching The District Nurse (if Nerys Hughes' home visits had been a cover for fleecing the pockets of her working class patients while they lay incapacitated clenching a rectal thermometer).
As bankers are generally considered to be the figures of public hate at the moment, I find it difficult to watch these new Natwest adverts without feeling an unnerving sense of deception. I feel like shouting: "Look at the shit were in! It's no good trying to be our best friends now!"
The latest advert, which takes place in the Chichester branch of Natwest, troubles me more than any of the others. Towards the end of the advert, a financial advisor is sat down with a young family when one of the children says: "We've got lots of pounds at home!" In response to the toddler's cutesy interjection, the financial advisor then informs him (with a wry grin and sly wink): "[Your pounds] need to be in the bank really."
There's something deeply unsettling about this Natwest advisor trying to tap up a two-year-old's piggy bank savings. I wish the advert would end with the parents closing their joint account, before hastily leaving the bank with a child in one arm and a suitcase full of cash in the other. As it stands, though, you get the feeling that when this toddler becomes a tweenager he'll be pressured to plunge his savings into a young savers account, which the banker's will dine out on, then gamble with, and ultimately lose. Left with no savings and a face primed to be ravaged by acne, he will see the future only as a bleak wasteland. It's all very depressing.
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I totally agree. I just find myself screaming at the screen- Who on earth thought it was a good idea to start "spreading the message" that Bankers are a caring sharing bunch- they are not....never have been really- I mean maybe come out trying to claw a bit of cash back in a year or two years time but to go out now doing what they are doing in the way they are doing it is such bad taste. Who on earth on the creative side (as if there was one) of Natwest approved such an approach- the advertising company that came up with this idea should be put out of business- A load of balls is what I say. Sam
ReplyDeleteHi Sam,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're in agreement! I mean, does anyone really believe that the banks have our best interests at heart?!
This series of ads was such an obvious attempt for a bank (in this case, Natwest) to re-connect with its customers. But it's difficult (if not impossible) to buy into what they're 'selling' when we've only just started to pay for the bankers' sociopathic greed.
Come to think of it, I haven't seen any of these Natwest ads in a while. I wonder if they've pulled them after realising that no one was buying their bullsh*t?
I agree that the Natwest ads are unpalatable but for different reasons. It is incorrect to liken the in-branch financial advisors to the investment banking "elite" with their four storey town houses in Holland Park who are truely to blame for the financial meltdown. The branch staff are no more responsible than any of us and obviously have been disproportionately punished through redundancy or loss of benefits which previously supplemented their low to average salaries.
ReplyDeleteI dislike the ads due to the lame cringe-worthy humour employed with the customers. For example, comments like "very rock and roll dad" cue mass laughter all round. The ads with Kevin Bishop were comedy gold, no one would seriously object to them because of the recession.
Hi Michael,
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right. The world's banking elite and the lowly financial advisors who work in local branches of multinational banks are completely different animals.
I'm perhaps guilty of generalising slightly on that score.
And, yes, the needle on the laugh-o-meter for the new series of ads is practically on the floor. It makes the ads ever so slightly uncomfortable to watch!
Natwest obviously thought that their comedy ads were too lighthearted for the grim seriousness of a deep recession, so opted for something 'real' instead. It hasn't worked.
Agree with the Ads shocking, but from working with in a branch of Natwest over the last 3 years i can say that branch staff just did the jobs they were asked to do but have suffered the worest within the bank re job loses and cut pay.
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting. If you read my reply to Michael (above), I do accept that there is a difference between branch-based bankers and the financial elite who pull the strings of the global economy. This recession's affected thousands of people, and I do of course feel sorry for anyone who might have lost their jobs or had difficulties over the last few months. (I've been affected myself).
It must leave a particularly bitter taste in the mouths of bank employees when they start to personally feel the repurcussions of the recklessness practiced by groups in the upper echelons of their own industry.
I hope you've not been too badly affected by it all.
I hate the way the nay west staff are all signing up to the "charter" like religious zealots. "the results are in - just the facts, nothing hidden".... Lo and behold we are "friendlier" than before. That's from a pretty low base nat west! I'm not fooled!
ReplyDelete