BANK on This!

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BANK on This!

By: Len Kornblau

Bank ads have come a long, long way. Remember the guys with the phony smiles and three last names followed by III hoping to become your “personal banker"?

Then, thanks to Hal Riney’s great creation for Crocker Bank, using then-unknown songwriter Paul Williams to create “We’ve Only Just Begun,” bank ads began to change. That campaign worked so well, Crocker canned it because they opened too many new accounts. How that’s possible remains a mystery.

Then we moved on to banks bragging about CD rates. That’s not happening anymore!

Now we have campaigns like Regis and Kelly for TD Bank talking about convenience.

And the guys with three last names are back, now followed by a IV, telling us they are better than the other banks. The problem is, neither they nor we know why!

Today bank ads are very entertaining. Once in a while, they actually have a legitimate benefit, though often softened by the mandatory copy at the bottom negating most anything said in the ad.

If mankind had evolved like bank advertising, the world would be such a better place! You can BANK on that!

About the Author

Len Kornblau (@ProfessorAdwiz on Twitter) is an advertising and marketing pro who has taught at universities and excelled at field marketing and account service.

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