Have a look at this:
Is it just me or did it make you wildly angry as well?
Apart from the ‘twist’ being more obvious than some Playboy centerfolds tits, the whole fucking thing is a masterclass in contrived and flawed advertising.
Contrived because of course it has every cliché cue of ‘wealth’ known to man.
Bentley?
Check.
Chauffer?
Check.
Chauffer in peaked cap?
Check.
Patronising end line by a financial organisation?
Check.
Patronising voice over that tries to sound authoritarian and empathetic all at the same time. And failing.
Check.
However it’s the fact that they are trying to claim their customers are hard-working, value-ridden, decent people that bugs me the most, because if that was the case, why the fuck would they have a chauffeur … worse, a chauffeur who is forced to wear a peaked cap, a jacket and a tie while they drive you about as you sit in the back like you’re a member of fucking royalty.
That’s not a ‘man of the people’, that’s a fucking pretentious twat.
In fact the only thing that is unique about this whole sorry 30 seconds of communication is that the music bed accompanying the spot shuns the usual classical/opera tonality of financial institutions and replaces it with something that wouldn’t be out of place in a shitty supermarket.
Seriously, this isn’t an ad designed to attract customers, it’s an ad designed to make the board of Bank of Singapore delude themselves that they’re not as bad as every other corporate financial institution board, despite the fact I’d bet they all live the sort of life that disconnects them from pretty much any single individual who lives by a genuine – and positive – code of honor.
And Bank of Singapore have the nerve to say they believe in the value of ‘hard work’.
Hard work!?
What hard work, unless finding ways to keep charging clients a fucking fortune while they squander billions, requires a bit of effort.
I once was asked that if I had a personalised car number plate, what would it say.
I replied, that if I had a personalised number plate, it would say I was a fucking cock.
I was wrong.
It would also say I was a customer – or employee – of the Bank of Singapore.