SINGO SAYS: WHICH BANK SHOULD DUMP THEIR AD CAMPAIGN?
February 14 2008, 7:13 pm | | 45 Comments
For once, CB agrees with Singo:
In a STORY in the Daily Telegraph, John Singleton has called on the CEO and board ofCommonwealth Bank to dump their latest advertising campaign andsuggested the person responsible for it would be sacked. Singo has labelled the campaign “obscene” and a “wasteof money”.
Meanwhile, CBA chief Ralph Norris defends the campaign in this STORY in today’s Australian.
45 Comments
Good onya Singo! This could be the best thing you’ve ever done for the Australian people. On behalf of everyone, thank you! Hopefully they’ll can use the media they’ve already bought to issue an apology, followed by a National SORRY Day and a free sausage sizzle outside every Cuntwealth bank.
Sorry, Mr. Pot. I couldn’t quite hear you over the shrill whistling I’m making due to the large quantity of water boiling within me at the moment.
Just don’t let him win the business back again!!!!!
“It’s (ad campaign) laced with irony, it’s laced with humour. It’s part of a long-term series of ads,” Mr Norris said, describing the first ad as an “attention grabber”.
Nice try, Mr Commbank.
But next time, try lacing your ads with relevance, with a promise, with something that matters to your customers.
Usually when you lace something aren’t you trying to cause death?
Seems the article forgot to mention Singo lost the account. Bitter.
yeah – we all hate clients who are willing to take risks!
Better for bank clients to stay talking about branches!
To hell with branding!
To hell with content!
To hell with metaphor!
Long live retail!
Long live the literal!
Hey Lynchy,
just wanted to point out that we actually got Singo on the record about Com Bank in Saturday”s weekend Australian. The Tele was a follow up four days after the fact.
Sour grapes.
Singos agency has previously taken work from the US, KFC etc, but now he can’t hack it when it comes back the other way. That’s the business. We’re in a global environment now. We all better wake up and start competing like we’re in one.
Sure the Commbank work is average, but I don’t hear anyone bagging NAB’s work. The truth is, we can all do average work, regardless of the country behind it. Let’s get some balance in here and stop flogging a dead horse on this issue and start celebrating the good stuff that’s happening here and overseas.
why are we still talking about this bank? … oh yeah, must be the advertising.
now that Singo says he hates it i think i like it more.
look at STW these days. it’s still operating as if it is 1986. There’s a bunch of people there that are so out of touch they probably still have people print off their emails for them. No-one i know who truly loves advertising and has any talent would ever work there.
Wow, maybe Singo’s sour grapes proclamation will be the saving of CBA / Goodby thing.
12:26 – Where’s the fun in that?
Talk about shooting the messenger…
Singo has only said what most people in the industry and EVERYONE in the public I’ve spoken to has said.
By the way 12.56, I believe a certain Siiiiimon Reynolds spend a few years at Singos. (Which a lot of people might say confirms your point.)
And can I just say everyone saying ‘at least people are talking about it’.
No they’re not. We’re talking about it because we’re in the ad business and it’s natural to talk about things in your own business area. The public are either bemused or dismissive, and that’s the worst possible response you can get.
And as for 10.37 cheering that at least Commbank is a client willing to take risks, well, they took the risk so they get the lumps when it’s a disaster. THAT’S the game we’re in. If it had been good, they would have got the credit. No credit is due for taking a dumb risk.
The result of this particular bit of risk-taking is that the rest of us will now have every client wanting more research than ever, fearing that otherwise they’ll do a Commbank – a term that has already appeared in a couple of client meetings I’ve been in.
This kind of commentary is surely to be expected from Singo. How many ex-agencies praise the next agencies work….
If Singo hates it, it must be good.
How dare people make ads that get talked about. Not defending the campaign, but if our agency had a client with that budget and that willing to take risks, I’d be a lot happier sacrificing my social life for those crap retail things I have to bang out from time to time.
Every commercial made for an Australian Bank is safe and boring.
Australian advertising agencies are so worried about losing clients.
BTW: The KFC ads are not particularly interesting either.
I don’t like the Comm banks ads, but hey, they’re a million times better than the Harvey Norman crap that Singo’s churn out. Shouldn’t he be looking closer to home to sack the agency and people who do that?
Remember chaps, Singo has departed the industry, a while ago, whilst most will think ‘and about time’, he has achieved more than most of us ever will.
3.25 Harvey Norman don’t have an agency. But you didn’t know that right?
Speak for yourself pal.
Singo should stop being the parrot for sour grapes STW and enjoy retirement
You may hate Singo, but lets face facts:
He’s got more money (and wives) than all of us put together.
And the Bank ads are terrible.
Would any of you have them on your reel?
And neither will Goodby.
singo is bitter as can be for losing the cba account. he’s the same coot that was also responsible for bringing Paris Hilton into Sydney for New Year’s Eve in 2006 to promote the new low-carb beer ‘Bondi Blonde’. talk about OBSCENE!!!!!!
please, you’re all in the ad business and waste tons of money on a daily basis perpetuating job security. BFD! go get your cocktails and designer jeans and come up with something creative ( since your such an expert ). you whiny little brats. all so boring and pissy. perhaps underemployed?
I’ve just seen a Commbank poster at my railway station.
No Pic. It just said “Determined to be better than ever.”
Which means?
Not much at all.
I’m starting to get the feeling Goodbys think of us the was some of us think about SE Asia when we work there – it’s like, “Oh, they won’t know any better.”
Still, I bet the banked the Commbank cheque pretty damn fast.
Very true 1.45.
I had the same experience recently with an AE recently, when he said a client wanted to research because his boss didn’t want to do a Commbank.
We’re all doomed.
no one truly believes this is stand alone Singo – of course this is the parrot shooting his mouth on behalf of the STW chaps. Sore Losers whichever way you look at it……
I’m sorry 10:37 but what you do is not content. What you do interrupts content. How arrogant you are…..”long live the literal”……what a silly ass. The quality of the ad is determined by how oblique and obscure the idea???? Get off the the designer beer you idiot.
As a little aside, Harvey Norman indeed have no agency, yet they are one of the most successful retailers in Australia. I’d be nervous if I worked in an agency!
Singo knows an average ad when he sees one god knows he has made a fortunate out of them.
You can’t blame the poor bankers their last 2 agencies did very average work and
made $$$$$$ out of them I know I was there.
When you look at the standard of creative work that hascome out of Australia in the last decade or so its know wonder more clients haven’t got on that silver bird looking for an idea.
Maybe this Com bank ad may stop them lets hope so other wise it will be so..
Where did ya get it
OS OF COURSE
Singo is bitter. I’ve heard there were 10 spots done total. I think the campaign will be interesting to see as a whole, and bank insiders say the ads are testing pretty well.
Plus i saw the ad on the news. we’ve created a PR monster. Like it or hate, people are talking about the comm-bank. If goodby anticipated our foul reactions like some are claiming, this could be pretty genius.
bank bla bla bank.
Singo is absolutely correct. The Commonwealth Bank ad campaign got even worse when they launched the follow-up work to support their cricket sponsorship. All any of it says to me is that a bank (which I used to consider as a strong, traditional Australian brand enjoying market leadersip) doesn’t understand Australia or me. It also says they’ve needlessly spent a lot of money on some absolute twaddle, and destroyed any of the trust they used to stand for … something I imagine is fairly important in the world of banking!?!
Yeah Simon Canning was first to get Singo in The Weekend Australian.
Only he forgot to mention Singo was the founder and former owner of the agency that CommBank fired.
No doubt an appearance on media watch coming up.
No one knows crap better than Singo… he made a shitloads of moolah from making shitloads of shit ads.
Now he’s brewing shit beer… that Bondi Blonde stuff is rancid… tastes like the run off from when Bondi was scum valley!!
Singo had nothing to do with Bondi Blonde.
It was his son, and it wasn’t new years eve 2006. Aside from that you guys are spot on. Finger on the pulse.
My first thought when I saw the commbank stuff was ‘how diabolical are these ads?’.
But the real question is ‘what were they thinking?’
Let me take a punt.
“There is no real benefit here – it’s a generic bank. In the absence of a real benefit, let’s try and tap into a cultural truth. We’re completely out of our depth here because Australian and American cultures are fundamentally different. So why don’t we do a campaign about how different it is for an Australian bank to choose an American agency. This will really resonate with Australians because we know at least two things: Aussies are parochial and don’t like yanks. And EVERYONE thinks people in advertising are tossers.”
It’s a completely understandable line of reasoning if you’re a Goodby creative. BUT AN ABOMINATION OF A CAMPAIGN. The only thing it does is advertises the Australian ad industry.
John Singleton sprays the CommBank Campaign in the Australian (Front page Sat business section). The paper fails to disclose the fact that Singo had been a major shareholder in the bank’s incumbent agency’s group.
The Australian follows up a few days later in the MEDIA section with a fluffy picture piece presumably as way of rectifying this appalling oversight and on the same day (last thursday) their sister paper The Telegraph runs ANOTHER spray from Singleton, again without disclosing his financial interests.
Way to get on Media Watch.
This campaign isn’t nearly as bad as the bile it has generated from the local industry. Watch the telly. It’s not nearly the worst work on TV.
It’s not even the worst in its category (NAB anyone?) Let’s give the bloody thing a chance to breathe and stop acting like children.
Get over the fact that it’s a global market and instead of whinging, send your books to Goodby’s.
I think the KFC ads for the cricket this summer were good. Not great, but certainly a far cry from the all singing, all dancing KFC employees as seen previously.
Quite right, a par pointing out Singo’s former stake in the agency should have run in the orginal story, and did in a the subsequent one which actually came out of the Comm Ban results briefing, not as the result of some sort of “”puff piece” (our banking writers would be most offended at that). Anyway, Mea Culpa. If I’m Media Watch bound, then so be it.
It’s ok everyone!
The consumer will have the last word.
(Just like they did with the equally childish “Bloody Volvo Drivers!” mess.)
The deal is, Norris should be fired.
Probably won’t thou, instead he’ll get a $100m bonus!
LETS END THIS DEBATE RIGHT NOW PEOPLE and ask Siimon Renolds and Jay Furby for their opinions.
Picked this up of BandT’s website:
Comm Bank ad gets public thumbs up
While the majority of the advertising industry hated it, the general public seems to have embraced the Commonwealth Bank’s new US created ad campaign, according to a survey conducted for B&T.
Comm Banks’ advertising was voted the best out of nine banks surveyed, with just under a quarter, 24.57% of the 35,065 respondents voting in favour of it.
The survey from EmailCash.com.au, Australia’s largest online research panel and part of the Permission Corp Group, was carried out from 8 February, thirteen days after Comm Bank’s ad went to air.
The controversial ad which features the work of a fictitious US ad agency and includes references to Mad Max and Crocodile Dundee, was a clear winner when people were asked the question: “Which of the following banks do you think has the best advertising??
ANZ’s advertising was second, favoured by 12.19% of respondents, followed by
St George at 7.4%, NAB at 5.22%, Westpac at 5.06%, Bendigo Bank, 3.76%, BankWest, 3.7% and Bank of Queensland at 2.47%. SunCorp came in last at 2.46%.
The result will provide a boost for Comm Bank’s head of marketing, Mark Buckman, who made the decision to move the bank’s main advertising duties out of Australia, handing it to San Francisco-based agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners.
The series of ads have come under fire from the creative community, including industry veteran John Singleton, who labelled the campaign “obscene? and a “waste of money?.
18 February 2008
Does that mean the Millionaire ad man is out of touch with ordinary Australian’s?
He should get back to flogging bucket size meals of American chicken to Aussie kids… onya Singo for being a proper Aussie!!!!
I saw a NAB ATM ad last night that was so much worse than the CBA work.
That said it was still better than St. George etc.
If all ads on our TV were like the CBA ad I wouldn’t want to change industries so much.
“survey”. 9.40…………hmmmmmmmmm.
panel………… EmailCash.com.au. Here’s what you see when you logon……..
Yes! Over 500,000 of your fellow Aussies are earning rewards for reading emails, filling out surveys and shopping online. It’s fun and it’s FREE! So why not join in and earn rewards yourself?
You can redeem your rewards for a cheque or prizes, bid in auctions, or donate to charity.
Is this the season for “me too” Bank campaigns or something?
First we had the CBA/BoQ “different” controversy, now BankWest has just launched a ‘Happy Banking’ campaign when in their home state of WA another high profile financial services brand (RAC) has been spruiking ‘happier members’ for about 2 years. I bet they’re happy.
I dunno i quite like the commbank ads – they are sort of funny, especially for a bank, they stick out on air and they almost certainly wouldn’t have been done by an Australian agency. Maybe we aren’t as smart as we think we are. I mean I am of course but some other people might not be…