Filed under: Comment
Saw this ad for HSBC by, I presume, JWT …
Yep, that kid really is doing an amazing pencil sketch of the Mona Lisa [whilst standing infront of the real thing, obviously] while his young, beautiful, well-dressed parents look on with a sense of pride.
Oh what a happy family they look.
Perfectly groomed, behaved and financially secure.
I particularly like how they made the kid look a bit ‘street’ by giving him cargo’s and a long sleeved tee under his shirt. Very clever.
Of course the fact it’s all a big pile of convoluted, contrived, fanciful bollocks doesn’t matter because JWT have told HSBC that the entire population of China aspire to this sort of image [even if it’s an image that has been so badly photo shopped that its physical dimensions make no sense whatsoever] and they sit in their homes each night dreaming about the day they too can stand as a family in front of one of the World’s most famous paintings [without any interruption from the Louvre’s staff despite the fact they’ve commandeered the space in front of the very reason most people enter its hallowed halls] and watch as their little Jamie [let’s face it, they wouldn’t take their daughter would they!] gets his crayolas out and pulls off the sort of genius Da Vinci himself would be proud of.
God I hate this fucking shit.
The Chinese population are not ‘stupid’. They are not gullible. They are not [all] living in a time warp bubble just like they don’t [all] aspire to the Western perspective of contrived sophistication.
This is one of the oldest cultures in the World … one that has created, developed and spread many of the skills that we take for granted. Too many marketers and agencies mistake the countries relatively recent consumer spending power for a nation full of naïve and/or ignorant souls which is ironic given this sort of work show it’s actually the client and agency who need to be taught some lessons.
Feel free to vent with vengeance.
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That isn’t even a western view of sophistication – notwithstanding the fact that the Mona Lisa is housed in a recess in a room with much higher ceilings like that – as any sophisticated bank customer with access to a search engine could confirm.
Bank with us and you too can live a lie.
Comment by John August 18, 2010 @ 6:31 amyoure fucking back doddsy. good. and youre at your smart arse pedantic best. even better.
this ad makes me angrier than the bullshit the banks pulled to put us all in a financial crisis but not as angry as them agreeing to lend me the money to do up a shithole that my wife still thinks will be the “perfect weekend getaway.”
hsbc, jwt, my wife. all fucking delusional but at least one of them is hot and fucking wonderful. clue: its not a bank or an old ad agency.
Comment by andy@cynic August 18, 2010 @ 6:41 amgetaway being the operative sentiment?
Comment by John August 18, 2010 @ 7:13 am“hsbc, jwt, my wife. all fucking delusional”
Genius.
Comment by Billy Whizz August 18, 2010 @ 8:22 amif my wife sees your comment billy and not the whole fucking thing i wrote, youre in deep fucking shit.
Comment by andy@cynic August 18, 2010 @ 8:24 amvintage fucking campbell and they deserve all they fucking get. absofuckinglutely shit and makes me want to deposit vomit at hsbc rather than cash. wankers.
is it any worse than 90% of banking ads? fuck, is it worse than 90% of consumer electronic ads including that fucking schmaltz bollocks iphone spot for facetime (are you listening baz!)?
when you take into account the absolutely fucking shit art direction, the absolutely fucking uber shit “kid sketches mona lisa at the froggy gallery” concept with their sad fucking shit talent choices then yes, it really is worse than 90% of ads out there.
confuckingratulations to hsbc and jwt (if they did it) this is one to be proud of and you should use that pride to get the gun out of your top drawer and let everyone who had something to do with this kill themselves after writing an apology to the fucking world.
i dont like this ad if you werent sure. good post campbell, you are asias defender poor fucking bastards.
Comment by andy@cynic August 18, 2010 @ 6:36 amactually, it’s the best insight i’ve ever seen – HSBC are bankrolling the biggest rip-off culture in the world. fake fendi, fake rolex, why not support copying from the obviously fake mona lisa too? that kid is going to make millions on his ability to sell thousands of copies to stupid westerners who don’t care if it’s the real thing, just so long as it looks like one.
Comment by lauren August 18, 2010 @ 6:45 amIf the Mona in that ad was supposed to be the real one, that whole family would be getting served an absolute beat down by Louvre security for even being that close.
I can only surmise two possibilities…
The first is that this rich Chinese family are SO rich that they have hired out the entire museum (after closing time hopefully) so that they can provide their son with the opportunity to admire and practise his skills in the presence of original masterpieces; a truly exclusive experience and naturally very aspirational for the rest of the Chinese population as Rob suggests.
Or…
It’s meant to be a fake version, but this family are nurturing their son so that he can learn to be a master forger or forgeries – thus creating an Inception like level of forgeries within forgeries which may have no end, all in the hope of eventually creating such confusion across all levels of forgeries and EVEN originals that the art world has no option but to cease existence ultimately ending in a fire sale of all art (is it a real or the work of the master forger forgerer?!) allowing HSBC directors to purchase the original originals for next to nothing and place in their Lake Como holiday houses.
Fucking HSBC. See what they did thurr?!
Comment by Age August 18, 2010 @ 8:38 amLauren makes a major statement on societies illusion of entitlement and I just say that if one of my beautiful girls did a sketch of the Mona Lisa like the one the child does in the ad, I’d feel I’d failed as a parent as it would appear we’d not let them explore the World enough and just kept them in the bedroom practicing, practicing, practicing.
A terrible piece of communication based on a terrible premise.
Comment by George August 18, 2010 @ 7:11 amyou dont have to worry george, ive seen what your little angels call art. thats not a criticism, i fucking love it, but they seem to be more inspired by lsd use than da fucking vinci.
no mary, i am not saying you feed your kids lsd, its a metaphor so dont fucking come round and smack me in the head, i have enough fucking headaches already.
Comment by andy@cynic August 18, 2010 @ 8:14 amgeorge, i’d hope that your girls would understand and embrace the cultural value of the mona lisa as a painting (as the best example of representing depth of field as it is in life), but would use it as a springboard to creating depth in their own ways.
and maybe i would want at least one of them to also say ‘i love it, but fuck the mona lisa, it’s just a painting’. although i suspect i might’ve just got myself in trouble there.
Comment by lauren August 18, 2010 @ 4:18 pmBecause a large proportion of Asia equate creativity with ‘art’, I particularly love how HSBC/JWT have made the child sketch a picture that is universally acknowledged as being the work of a genius in a bid to make the ad “aspirationally credible”. They failed, or at least I hope they did.
Comment by Pete August 18, 2010 @ 8:09 amwhen a nice guy kicks the fuckers, you know it must be shit.
Comment by andy@cynic August 18, 2010 @ 8:24 amNice guy? Me?
Wow, thank you Andy, I’m touched, shocked and a bit scared.
Comment by Pete August 18, 2010 @ 8:25 ami wasnt talking about you you bigheaded fuck, it was just a general comment but for what its worth youre the nicest guy of all the fuckwit bastards i know.
Comment by andy@cynic August 18, 2010 @ 8:26 amThank you, it means a lot.
Comment by Pete August 18, 2010 @ 8:32 amIt’s all shit. Is there really any more to say?
Comment by Billy Whizz August 18, 2010 @ 8:22 amnot really. now stop fucking trying to sound like a planner whose boiled down the issue/idea to its fucking “essence” and come and buy me a fucking drink.
Comment by andy@cynic August 18, 2010 @ 8:23 amAnd I didn’t need a 1000 page powerpoint presentation to say it. Lining the stomach now, see you in 20.
Comment by Billy Whizz August 18, 2010 @ 8:33 amWell, the comments on this post are going as I expected … and I expected Grade-A vitriol so today could be a great day.
As you were …
Comment by Rob August 18, 2010 @ 8:27 amHahahaha, the least they could do is put some cleavage on the lady, eh?
Comment by New High Score August 18, 2010 @ 9:54 amIf Dad needs a jumper and the kid needs a t under his shirt then Mum is very underdressed and will leave France with a terrible cold.
Comment by Bazza August 18, 2010 @ 10:08 amWhy does the mum look like she’s floating on air. Is she that excited her nerdy son can copy other peoples work so accurately?
And is it just me but does the dad look like he’s smiling because he’s rubbing his cock against his sons back? Brings new meaning to the phrase “making a deposit”.
Comment by DH August 18, 2010 @ 11:06 amI bet HSBC/JWT are loving that their ad has suddenly gone into pervert & pedo territory. Thanks gentlemen, you’ve brought up “issues” that I doubt any focus group could identify. Though to be fair, that say’s more about you lot than research groups.
Comment by Rob August 18, 2010 @ 11:12 amIt’s the kind of image that inspires large groups of people to take to the streets; they shout “revolution” and long for the blood of the Bourgeois.
Comment by Marcus August 18, 2010 @ 2:09 pmExcellent.
Comment by Rob August 18, 2010 @ 2:22 pmThat’s the dream I have for my little boy, one day we’ll stand by a counterfeit work of art in a fake art gallery so he can copy someone else’s work.
Comment by northern August 18, 2010 @ 3:08 pmIsn’t HSBC Ogilvy? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have any love for JWT, but no one deserves the blame for this if they didn’t do it.
I don’t have much love for Ogilvy either come to think of it, I haven’t met anyone that works on Castrol yet, but it’s only a matter of time. Apparently the account director reckons that people in Asia are too stupid to engage with advertising that isn’t as simple and trite as a McCann ad from the 1950’s. Going to love meeting him.
1. It is JWT. Well, I don’t know if this ad is by them, but in Asia [and I think the World] JWT is the AOR on HSBC.
2/ People who think Asian society are too thick to engage with advertising need to take off their myopic, prejudice blinkers and actually engage with the region rather than live in their isolated ivory tower with voice activated walls that repeat “WHITE IS BEST” over and over again.
3/ The Account Director you mention better start praying to fuck that the people of Asia don’t hold his pathetic wanky comments against him when their ‘stupidity’ ends up allowing them to buy up all his owns and covets in life.
This ad says more about Western client/agency prejudice than it does about Asia’s audience.
Comment by Rob August 18, 2010 @ 7:52 pmIt is an ad for a bank, correct? So is it safe to say that the biggest cutomer/focusgroup/client who needs to be kept happy is the chinese gov?
The ad is crap (though i’d do the mum, but that neither here nor there).
Yet what if the brief was: suck up to the gov just enough to not get licences pulled? (though most gov officials would agree with your assesment of the ad, because even if they peddle this type of illusion, as political pragmatists they rarely buy it. Which could actually open some door for you, if you’d walk the tightrope of subtext of negotiations correctly, but i digress)
Just wondering what the real aim was?
Comment by niko August 18, 2010 @ 3:18 pmThe real Mona Lisa is in a huge glass case surrounded by people who think they understand art because they read the fucking Da Vinci code, and whom walk by ignoring the hundreds of magnificent pieces of art around them in the Louvre to stand looking at this in bemused awe.
The ad is cheesy. But HSBC snd Chinese agencies are in no way the only people spreading outdated simplified family stereotypes. Half the ads on our screens have them.
Comment by Rob Mortimer August 18, 2010 @ 5:07 pmHardly surprising this is so shit considering how much planners hate clients.
Comment by Marcus August 18, 2010 @ 5:44 pmYeah … how fucking sad/stupid was that finding. Seriously, who the fuck do they think they are and do they realise that part of the job is convincing/persuading others their strategy is right and so if they hate their job because clients never agree with them, it says more about their shitness than the clients.
Sure there are painful clients, but to say they are the WORST THING ABOUT THE JOB makes me physically sick. And angry.
Comment by Rob August 18, 2010 @ 7:54 pmDo not get me started on this. Elitism is one the major sources of crapness in agency people.
Comment by northern August 18, 2010 @ 8:45 pmConsumers are idiots, cleints have no imagination, suits are control freaks, planners are nerds, you’re not cool enough to work here (I’ve had that one).
Hate it, hate it, hate it.
We really should respect people who ca do the things we can’t do or don’t want to do. Even Millward Brown.
The only exception is anyone who wants to worship Disruption and Media Arts.
It’s ok to feel frustrated by clients, but anyone who’d rather whinge about it than work to change their mind is an idiot.
I hate the elitism that some places have, if you have that kind of attitude how the hell are you supposed to make work that people relate to?
Comment by Rob Mortimer August 18, 2010 @ 8:54 pmWhile I agree that it is an absolutely insulting and cliché ad in a lot of different ways, does this necessarily have to be grounded in the believe that “the chinese” are stupid? I mean – I spent the last days watching I don’t know how many panty liner, towel and tampon commercials (directed at Westerners) and most of those paint a nothing less idiotic picture of – in this case -women and girls.
Comment by Thomas August 18, 2010 @ 8:14 pmGood point Thomas – it’s just that as bad as the female sanitary pad ads are, they’re still better than the way many brands treat the Asian public … come and have a look for yourself, you’ll be amazed at their nerve.
Comment by Rob August 18, 2010 @ 11:15 pmwhat the fuck are you doing up campbell? are they making you work for your excessive salary? what a bunch of bastards.
Comment by andy@cynic August 18, 2010 @ 11:17 pmThey sure are. The bloody nerve of it.
I’m calling you – got something amusing to tell you, something that will allow you to say “I TOLD YOU CAMPBELL” which should just about guarantee you don’t send me to voicemail.
Comment by Rob August 18, 2010 @ 11:19 pmI agree with Lauren. Come on Rob, you must have been to the ‘art’ district in Shenzhen. Stacked full of fake Mona Lisas. This is a brilliant, if unwitting, critique of China’s economic miracle. Terrible as a piece of advertising, though.
Comment by David August 18, 2010 @ 8:14 pmSo you think China’s growth has come purely from copying/stealing others? You don’t really do you David … please say you don’t. I’m not denying a lot of plagarism has happened, but to say that is all the nation has done is a bit crap … you’ll be writing ‘Grey’s Eye On Asia’ next.
Comment by Rob August 18, 2010 @ 11:02 pmHaha – Grey’s Eye on Asia. No of course I don’t think that – I was being flippant. But there’s nothing wrong with copying stuff – it’s exactly what Japan did 40 years ago. And look what they went on to do.
Comment by David August 18, 2010 @ 11:29 pmwonder if that swotty little fuck could do me a quick sketch of a $50 so i can buy a fucking sandwich.
Comment by andy@cynic August 18, 2010 @ 8:45 pmsmall fucking sandwich.
Comment by Marcus August 18, 2010 @ 8:53 pmsmall fucking sandwich. for $50? fuck me brown what do you eat?
Comment by andy@cynic August 18, 2010 @ 9:43 pmif you ever managed to get your fat backside to Germany I could show you.
Comment by Marcus August 19, 2010 @ 12:18 ammaybe when i get over the fact those fuckers bombed my grans cake shop.
Comment by andy@cynic August 19, 2010 @ 5:54 am