I’m curious – does anyone react to one of those “we’re really interested in making your life better” bank advertisements by, I don’t know, in any way whatsoever feeling more positive about the bank in question? A nauseating Westpac one came on a moment ago where they were claiming they were like “the neighbour who lets you know your headlights are on”. (No, you’d be the neighbour who’d tell us after the car was flat, and you would charge us $30 for the advice.)
But they must work on someone. They must have run focus groups where somebody watched the spot and said they felt much better about the bank and would open an account first thing in the morning (or at whatever time the bank felt like opening its doors). So who are these gullible idiots who can be conned into thinking that a bank that pays for ads where it talks about how much it “cares” about “the community” actually gives a shit about anything other than maximising their own already obscene profits?
People that credulous can’t possibly exist, I can’t believe it: but they must, or the banks wouldn’t bother. IT JUST DOESN’T MAKE SENSE. Something about this whole thing is very, very wrong.
Moved On 
Baby Jesus loves gullible idiots, they make him giggle and burp with contentment. There certainly seem to be a lot of them to keep him amused. Sometimes I am one myself. Maybe even right now making this comment, but at least I trust banks the way I trust casinos – to be interested in making money from the punters.
Not everything gets focus group tested. These ads are dreamt up by university graduates who begin their degrees as cynical teenagers, and finish them having been brainwashed by the bright and shiny world of PR.
I’ve sat there in classes and felt my heart sink as people happily brainstorm a bunch of stuff that would clearly never work, and would in fact leave them very embarassed.
The best way to rob a bank is to run one.
The biggest thieves in the world are thoes who run banks. They rob all their stakeholders for personal gain.
i picked bankwest, because they were the most competitive.
for my daughter’s savings account, i picked westpac because of their sponsorship of the surf-lifesavers, and their environmental awards.
really, they’re all evil, but westpac seemed slightly less evil.
You mean “but Chewbacca was on Endor!”?
It’s just feel-good nonsense. How else can you advertise usury scams?
What’s more worrying is that there must be some sort of market for those insipid mobile accessory ads (like the Love Calculator thing).
And you’d be surprised at how effective free market propaganda can be.