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"Lies,Scams And Threats - Banks Are Condemned"!
That is the headline in a very recent issue of the Times of London.And there's more!
Meanwhile spend some time watching prime time TV and you'll discover that the same British baanks are suuandering millions nightly on TV advertising, tell all and sundry just how decent, honest and trustworthy they are and how they can be relied to look after your money! Meanwhile they are busily robbing your very bank accounts that they hold!
An interesting statistic has emerged recently, over four million people have downloaded the templates enabling them to reclaim the many millions illegally ripped off them through unlawful plundering and removal of monies from their bank accounts. And just for arguments sake this 4 million people have each told 5 other people of this experience, so that is 20 million people convinced of the dishonesty of the banking system! (In actual fact it is probably far far more)!
Now not all the advertising in the world can help the banks regain the trust and good will that has evaporated from this little fiasco! I guarantee that no advertising agency in the world will recommend that the banks should pull their advertising off TV until this little farce dies away.
And then there's the net...ah, the internet, utterly hostile and uncaring about the needs of corporate advertisers but nevertheless ripping off clients who are clamouring to advertise there, aided and abetted gleefully, by their advertising agency.
It has been established that advertisements for major brands including eBay and easyCar were appearing on sites hosting violent content. Without prior knowledge of the advertisers! A slick piece of advertising jargon know as "Blind Buy".
Other household names, such as Pepsi,Starbucks and Sony Playstation are benefiting from advertisements next to internet footage of children, as young as ten, beating each other up in organised fights!
There was even an advertisement inviting viewers to "Win £1,000 with your video clips and show us how much you love Pepsi". As an aside, that line amply demonstrates how much advertising agency copywriters know and understand their audience on the Internet!
Anoth advertisement reads "Buy street videos on eBay"!
Companies place some advertisements that appear next to fight footage direct, websites contacted said that while they regularly screened content and remove offensive material they could not exercise complete control over what was posted.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, Web 2.0 is not a suitable medium for advertising, it was not developed to be a mass marketing medium, it was built for people to go elsewhere...mainly searching for pornography, 65% log on searching for porn!
What is really frustrating is the fact that sll these problems need not exist if the advertising and media industries really understood the meaning of the word "communication".
Armed with that understanding they could (but they really don't want to do this) substantially reduce their Clients budgets, reduce clutter, be totally accountable, increase sales, give people a reason to watch terrestrial TV thus halting the erosion of audiences and, at the same time, protect our excellent media heritage!
It is when you fully realise what advertising agencies are all about that yo realise that they do not have our best interests at heart! In America advertising is know as a" Brand tax"...in a nutshell, it is, it most certainly isn't free!
In closing let me report on a recent consumer poll and consumer attitudes to high street banks. This survey shows that the public can barely tell them apart. It would appear that account holders stick with their bank not out of loyality, but ennui! People are not simply inspired by the marketing, the branding or the promise of anyone else on the high street.
This is a amazing achievement, given how much banks and building societies spend on advertising, public relations and consumer promotions!
All I can say is "What an utter waste of money...our money"!