What is going on at TBWA?
It’s an agency that I like, but recently their [network] work seems to be more about corporate toadiness than communication disruption.
OK, so not all of their work is like that – and they still are in possession of some of the most brilliant and talented people in the biz – but there’s been a couple of recent campaigns that seem to indicate their ‘disruption’ philosophy has been consigned to the dustbin or been re-engineered so that it can represent whatever delusional rubbish their clients want to say.
What am I talking about?
Well I am sure you remember their god awful ‘GO’ campaign for VISA … also known as “get in debt chasing the illusion of happiness even though all you’ll be left with are bills, broken dreams and bankruptcy” … however they’ve gone and surpassed themselves with this minute of delusion for Standard Chartered Bank.
Sorry, but this is just taking the piss.
Whilst there genuinely is an opportunity for a bank to take the high-ground and make/take a stand against some of the flagrant excesses of the industry over the past few decades – Standard Charter is not one them.
To be fair, they seem to know that because throughout this 1 minute of condescending, contrived bullshit they never actually say or commit to anything that demonstrates why they’re different to all the other blood sucking international finance leeches, instead they seem content to expose us to a seemingly never-ending stream of Z-grade Mr Miyagi expressions:
“Balance ambition, with conscious”
“To do what it must, not what it can”
“Not everything in life that counts, can be counted”
“Don’t just look at the profit you make, but how you make that profit”
“Stand beside people, not above them”
“Every solution, depends on each person”
Are they having a laugh?
Are they having a fucking laugh?
You know what, I don’t think they are … I think they genuinely believe this shit … which is even more amazing given they don’t give a single example of what they’re doing to live up to their claim of “HERE FOR GOOD”.
HERE FOR THEIR OWN GOOD, more like.
I don’t know what amazes me more, the fact TBWA let this happen or that no one at Standard Charter actually asked or considered the question, “Are we opening ourselves up to ridicule here?”
History is littered with people and organisations who have made huge financial contributions to charities/society in a bid to off-set/hide the fact they made their millions/billions through the exploitation, manipulation and scare-tactics of people, communities and cultures … but at least they coughed up … as far as I know, all Standard Chartered have done is sponsor a marathon and pay obscene amounts of money to their employees as annual ‘bonuses’.
Even if what Standard Charter claim is true – the fact they [1] don’t actually explain what/how they do stuff and [2] have to talk about it because no fucker knows about it, demonstrates there’s something wrong with their whole “societies bank” premise, which all leads back to my original point that the disruption philosophy banded about by TBWA seems less to be about an intelligent alternative and more to do with standing out for the sake of standing out – albeit by creating some of the most emotionless, bland, passive pseudo-anthemic communication since the last Coldplay album.
Adland needs a strong TBWA – so please make us believe again, for everyones sake.