Is this the ponciest hotel breakfast bar in the World?
You didn’t have a table to eat at … oh no … you had to sit on a sofa and try to look sophisticated while shoving bircher muesli down your throat.
You’ll be happy to know I totally didn’t fit in because …
1 I’m not sophisticated.
2 I don’t like the overly poncy.
3 It was full of French people with perfectly sculptured hair.
However the bit I liked was that as stylish as this was, when you looked out the window you didn’t see a beautiful tree-lined street with copious amounts of models walking up and down … you saw this …
Hong Kong in all it’s polluted, hustle-and-bustle glory … where everytime you look up in the air, you see financial institution next to financial institution …
… all trying to look bigger, better, tougher and harder than the other.
Seriously, it’s like a Miss World competition where all the contestants try and flirt a little bit harder with the judges, smile a little bit broader with the cameras and stick their boobs out a little bit further for the men in the audience – except in this case, they’re buildings trying to look mean and imposing rather than attractive and sophisticated. Hmmmn, not really the best analogy I’ve ever come up with is it? Oh well …
Inkeeping with the bank theme, I was actually in HK to meet with a bank who was interested in talking to us about doing some work for them.
Putting aside the fact the meeting was a disaster for a few reasons [it doesn’t help when 50% of the marketing team haven’t seen the brief we were given and don’t know we were there] what I found really interesting was that one of the Bankers said they were a “… much nicer, warmer, caring bank than the competition”
When I asked why she would say that, she said they just were … she couldn’t give me any reasons, that’s just what she thought – which all goes to show how much people can live in denial of the cold hard facts.
Don’t get me wrong, some banks do operate by an ethical code [Westpac in Australia for example] but in the main, they are a bunch of greedy, arrogant, financially obsessed individuals who have as much interest in humanity as Pol Pot – and given this organisations goal is to triple turnover in 3 years – you can be pretty safe in saying they’re NOT as warm, fluffy and cuddly as this person likes to think they are.
Sure, compared to George Bush they might be nicer, but in the REAL, EVERYDAY WORLD, they are still pretty crap.
I love how people involved in areas that are less salubrious – finance, law, weaponry and advertising – all try and justify their position by making lofty proclamations like …
“We help invest in your potential”
“We ensure justice for the people”
“We ensure peace prevails”
“We help people make decisions”
… when in the majority of cases [not all, but in most] the reality is …
“Money is our cocaine”
“We keep big business safe”
“Killing is our business. And business is good”
“Brainwashing for commerce”
I remember once presenting to a bank and the opening slide was, “BANKING IS LIKE ADVERTISING, A NECESSARY EVIL” to which 4 executives simply got up and walked out. They were outraged because – and this was the scary bit – they truly believed the public loved and valued them!
Of course, not all banks are bad… and to be fair, many categories have a similar arrogance/ignorance in their approach to what they do … but is it any wonder so much communication is so bad when the people shaping it have one eye on their own ego throughout the whole process?
It’s the modern day ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ and I love being the person who shouts out “He’s Naked!”