CommBank apologises for controversial ‘Bomb Hoax’ Olympic spot via M&C Saatchi, Sydney – CBA’s Andy Lark tells B&T debacle was ‘not newsworthy’ and the spot was not approved – close source tells Campaign Brief it was
August 2 2012, 4:32 pm | | 122 Comments
UPDATE: CommBank has apologised for the controversial ‘Bomb Hoax’ Olympic spot featuring C, A, N and T, released last night on its YouTube channel.
A CommBank spokesperson said this afternoon: “The Commonwealth Bank apologises for the online video released to its YouTube Channel. We acknowledged some concerns were raised and the material was withdrawn this morning.”
Later this afternoon CBA’s chief marketing and online officer Andy Lark told B&T the debacle was “not newsworthy” and that the video was not approved.
However, since then one source close to the situation told CB the video was definitely approved by CommBank, which is why CommBank apologised and not the agency.
122 Comments
Unfortunately it finished just before I got it.
This is not funny at all. Gents you clearly weren’t in London on 7/7.
Erm…bomb jokes are never funny, but especially not in London. As someone who lived there when the tube/bus bombings occurred I think this is in very bad tasted.
The print in this campaign looks really good when put next to the shite tv and experiential. Embarrassing campaign that seems to be getting worse by the day.
Bring back Goodbys.
Hang your heads in shame. Bomb jokes aren’t funny. Particularly in a country that lived through 7/7 and IRA bombings. You’re not cool and clever. You’re a bunch of cunts.
Absolutely pathetic.
Beyond the obvious point that this is so poorly done, poorly written, badly executed, just generally unfunny, this is about as repugnant as advertising gets in it’s lack of respect for some measure of respect and common decency. This is an olympic event that lives every day for the next 10 with the very real fear of a terrorist event, and to make a joke of that threat is frankly unbelievable.
Let’s put the marketing manager, and the creative department from M&C in a room with the relatives of the victims from the London bombings for just a few minutes and see how they do . . . then fire them all.
CBA had better initiate some major damage control on this, or the harm to their brand, especially when this becomes an international story will be overwhelming.
I can’t believe you’d make something like this. How utterly ill-conceived and retarded. What happens if a bomb does go off at the Olympics? Why on earth would you take the risk of joking about a potential future tragedy in one of your ads. Absolute idiots.
I’m normally the first one to say ‘stop being so uptight’ and ‘pc gone mad’… but this is just fucking stupid, and shows an appalling lack of judgement all round.
The people behind this can you watch this please:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR0D3XUxk6A
Oh and if you’re thinking we’re being over sensitive – How about Barclays joking about the Bali Bombings?- that wouldn’t be funny would it? No it wouldn’t.
am i the only person drawing the analogy from these tvcs that the comm bank characters are sneaky and don’t want to help. In one scenario they fail to prevent another character falling over a cliff and in this spot they dob in someone with a back pack. Through their CAN characters,don’t these tvcs just reiterate the could’nt care less attitude that the community attributes to banks.
If you are really proud of this and want some real publicity send it to the Sun newspaper in the UK: talkback@the-sun.co.uk I’m sure they will get you some noise.
surely…surely…surely at some point in this process, an ECD or GAD would’ve said to the team,
“Guys, I’m just going to stop you there…we’re not doing terrorism jokes in London. We’re just not going to RISK OUR ENTIRE FUCKING BRAND’S REPUTATION!!!! Imagine what the mainstream papers would do with this if we actually made it?! Now bring us something fun that doesn’t remind everyone of dead, bleeding and maimed bodies lying everywhere…”
Just sent this off to the Times in London, the NYTimes, the Sun, and the Daily Mail.
Let’s see what kind of infamy this brings to our local bank, and to the worldwide ad agency that did the “creative” work.
CAN’T wait for their reactions.
This is going to end badly…
And the worst thing, somebody thought it was funny.
Good move Comeuppance.
Great spot. too funny
I knew we should’ve put Toni Collette in them, it would’ve lifted them.
SO FOOLISH!!!!
You guys have not idea what you’ve started.
ECDs and GADs and MDs and CEOs…call me quickly, there are some openings in Siberia!
Understandable that the News rags wouldn’t be carrying this story, but there’s no sign of it in the SMH either.
Do you think that the front page banner ad for CommBank would have anything to do with Fairfax editors withholding news about a major banking institution doing online comedy ads lampooning the terrorist threat at the games in London?
Hard to believe.
Can someone send this link to Toni Collette – I’m sure she’d have something to say considering she’s the one that told everyone you ‘Can’.
Would the last person to leave M&C please turn off the lights.
This is just a cluster-fuck of the highest order.
1. I CAN’T believe an agency of this calibre would put this up as a good idea for their client – as @shocked said, surely someone had the decent sense to say “hold on a minute” ?
2. I CAN’T believe the CBA marketing team was presented and approved this idea. Which includes pushing it up the line to management for approval, because let’s face it, it’s not some 28yo marketing manager signing off this shit. Although it probably will be that person that gets boned for this massive error in judgement.
3. What a bunch of dumb CAN’TS!
Droga5 just announced the hiring of a new Spin Doctor, er Communications Director.
Maybe M&C should get one of them as well?
Oooops, too late.
Just imagining the reactions from Tim Duffy, the group chairman, and Carrie Hindmarsh, the new CEO in London when they get wind of this from their agency in Sydney.
The proverbial heads will roll, suits, execs, creatives, the lot we’re guessing, if that’s enough to save the account.
CBA execs will demand blood no doubt, and a good bit of it from their own marketing team, from Lark on down.
All well deserved, as it’s about time someone was accountable for these kinds of tasteless stunts.
Heads, ready.
Chopping block, ready.
I’ve seen funny bom jokes to everyone who says ‘when is a bomb joke never funny?’
news.com.au are going very light on this….too light for my liking
Never thought a single commercial could single-handedly encapsulate all that is bad about the ad industry.
Bill Hicks was right.
While the idea of getting rid of the T is fine, whoever approved this execution to leave the agency needs to perhaps get out of ad wank land and understand the sensitivities of the wider world. Really, really bad going, guys. You’re smarter than this…or maybe not.
PEOPLE THINK ADVERTISING PEOPLE ARE WANKERS.
I bet Gruen are licking their lips.
I know a guy whose daughter was killed in the bali bombings.
I hope he doesn’t see this.
To the bomb shelter quickly, it can’t fit all of us!
That this appalling effort doesn’t backfire as bad as the magnusson gold effort
just not funny, or considerate.
BOOM! The egg’s all over your face COMMBANK and M&C, and all over the fan.
Well done. Lark rocks
‘some concerns were raised’….. understatement of the year.
This is pretty bad taste. My family narrowly avoided being in the Harrods bombing, this is the kind of stuff you just don’t joke about.
A truly great agency would make another video to redress this gaffe.
Lark says that the video was “unapproved” and the issue of its release “not newsworthy”.
I think the public will be the judge of what’s newsworthy, and as far as a video for CBA being made and put on YouTube by their agency M&C without the marketing department’s approval? That’s actually far funnier than the ad ever could have been.
Starting a contest to see who can come closest to guessing how long it will take for Mr. Lark to ‘resign’, a euphemism for quitting before you’re fired.
We’re taking 24 hours. What’s yours?
Maybe we should start one for the creative team at M&C who came up with the ad, and the CD and ECD who approved it?Can we have the credits CBB?
Let’s give them another 24 hours to 48.
If it was unapproved what is he the Chief Marketing Officer of? Himself?
Secondly, if it’s is not newsworthy, is he a producer of wallpaper?
For a man who is a serial opinionator (sic) that really is not much of an opinion.
Really, really bad taste…I don’t get what was going on in your heads, M&C?!
What you sow
Good luck CBA
As a client, if my agency ever put out unsolicited work about my brand at all, whether or not it was as bad and in poor , poor taste like this is… they would not live to see the end of the day working on my business.
So Lark, are you going to sack the agency to prove your statements?
Buckmans
Why have CBA said sorry if it wasn’t approved? Shouldn’t it be M&C apologising?
I think I just saw ‘The Daily Lark’ falling from a high branch and landing at the base of the tree.
Not sure whether that report is newsworthy, but at least it’s authorised.
From the wisdom of The Daily Lark, “learn to fail faster”.
One year, not bad. At least he practices what he preaches.
The same stunt was pulled back in the 70s. Here’s a snippet:
http://gifsoup.com/webroot/animatedgifs/22625_o.gif
Why would they even waste the money filming it if it wasn’t approved?
Or do they not write scripts at M&C?
Not only are they moronic, they’re just downright liars.
Oh, come on. It was just a Lark!
I’m not going to read the above comments.
I just want to add one that says: “What the fuck were you thinking?”
Richard Nixon “I’m not a crook.”
Bill Clinton “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”
John Howard “The Government’s position remains that we were advised by Defence that children were thrown overboard, we made those allegations on the basis of that advice, and until I get Defence advice to the contrary I will maintain that position.”
Rupert Murdoch “In his ten years in power, I never asked Tony Blair for any favours, and I never received any.”
Andy Lark “It was an unapproved video that got released”, and “it’s not newsworthy.”
Comm bank don’t worry about what these guys say, ads always bomb on here.
I saw DDB in there today
I’m not sure what’s worse: how insensitive and stupid it is, or just how completely shit it is in the first place.
Feel sorry for the scape goats.
No way on earth their Social Marketing team didnt post the video.
No way on earth the doers werent told what to do.
No way on earth an agency would create pro bono for the biggest bank in the country.
No way on earth Lark will accept responsibility.
Comeuppance:What’s to be gained by what you’ve done? People like you shit me with your gutless, sneaky behaviour.
You’ve made this poor piece of judgement all about you.
Your so-called indignation stinks of self aggrandisement.
What a slimy piece of public-servantry you must be.
If I ever have the displeasure of scraping you off my shoe, I’ll punch both of your faces.
Spineless marketing response on an inept idea. They deserve each other.
Jesus fucking Christ. This must be the single-largest simultaneous lapse of judgement ever.
I can also confirm that there is a legitimate fear from some people here of a terrorist attack during the Olympics. Not everybody, or even a lot or people, but it’s still there. Actually, some people I have met literally changed their own lives forever after 7/7. That’s not the kind of thing to joke about, is it?
Patiently waiting for the Daily Mail or The Sun to get a whiff of this – it’s only a matter of time really. And it will be ugly.
@Mick Hunter
Hey tough guy, get under your skin a bit? You’re a little long in the tooth to be street fighting, and this from one of the ‘Grown Ups’?
While your shitting yourself, what’s Comeuppance done exactly, except forward to the world press what an ignorant and insensitive Aussie agency decided to play out on the streets of London and throw up on the internet, only to have their client pull it less than a day later. Now that’s gutless.
And how exactly is his, or her indignation in any way self-aggrandising, especially since its anonymous?
Pull your head out. This isn’t Glasgow, and you’re not Gary Cornish.
Yeah they dropped the ball with this one. Yeah, it wasn’t even a half funny bomb gag
And yeah it should never have left the agency. All that said, it’s just an ad, a bad one and one that alludes to a bit of bad taste if taken to heart.
Cants on here been waiting their whole lives for something to bitch and be snide about. Seriously, take a look at yourselves. Grow up, get a life and get over it.
was about say i’d love to be a fly on the wall of Tom & Toms office when all this went down, then i actually realised if i turned the telly down i’ll probably be able to hear the screaming from here. heads will roll…
We just won a gold.
@ blown up
You retard. There has never been, nor will there ever be, anything funny about bombs.
I honestly hope that whoever was responsible, both agency and client, are fired for their stupidity.
One day cock of the walk…the next a feather duster.
Looking forward to his Caxtons speech now.
im gay
…From the industry. I’m embarrassed to be in the fucking game after seeing this. I just hope my mates or family don’t see it back in Blighty. And I’m transferring my savings from CB tomorrow (better rates elsewhere anyway). Fuck you M&C and fuck you Commbank.
And by the way, it’s a shit campaign. Men dressed as letters! So disappointing after the launch brand spot . Feels like a totally different brand talking to me now.
Who’s answerable !!!
Mmmm
Mick Is the only one with the balls to put his name to a comment.
Clap.
Come on, it’s “just a bit of fun”… isn’t it?
Funny no one is using that excuse here.
credits please
@Kane Lucic
Putting one’s name to an aggressive and rambling spew is not a virtue, it’s just thick.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/aug/02/australian-bank-terrorism-advert-london-2012
http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2012/08/02/commonwealth-bank-apologises-after-bomb-hoax-ad-pulled-youtube
it feels like this ad was created by people who’s only exposure to the outside world is via facebook or twitter
Did he not tell the truth to B&T when he said the video was not authorised?
oddly, cant find any posts regarding this matter the CBA facebook page…..
you’d think the social media master would know better
It took 5 years of effort from Buckman and his team to turn the CBA ship around. it has taken the present regime 5 ads to destroy the brand’s reputation, I feel for the CBA marketing team, (who won marketing team of the year a couple of years back) it must be incredibly painful to watch this destroy their work… hold in there guys, the end is near!
If it was unapproved and got released then Lark should quit for not having control. If he did approve it he should quit for being an idiot.
Client to agency:
“Listen guys, here’s how it’s going to work. If you want to keep the account, you’ll shut the fuck up when we make a press release saying that it was “unauthorised”… because there’s no way we’re taking the blame for this, even though we approved it.
So you take the blame, and all your other clients can only assume that they work with an agency that made a bomb hoax commercial for a major client, and uploaded it without even telling that client… but don’t worry, we’re also going to tell the media that this isn’t newsworthy, so it’ll all just blow over anyway.”
agency to client:
“Uh, ok. I guess. Fuck. Shit. Piss. We screwed.”
Where are the credits?
Who directed this? Who shot it? Who were the creatives? The CD?
Every other CBA spot on this blog has had a credits list longer than the press release.
There are enough boots being put in already so I won’t add mine.
But I am curious about how come this ad is still up and playable on this site. Aren’t the agency and client doing their darnedest to remove it from everywhere?
Not bitching, just genuinely curious.
@It’s still here
This is a business news site, like Mumbrella, and neither the agency nor the client have any control over its content.
Once they’ve published the work on a public site, it’s public, which means that the press release about the spot was a damning in the end as the release on YouTube.
Who does the agency’s/client’s PR?
If the CBA is a major sponsor of the games, is there anything that could rule them out of being so from here on?
Something like a “BAD FUCKING TASTE” Clause?
Anyone?
That is one of the lowest posts I have ever read. A spiteful petroleum-based barb, anonymously poured on the flames.
Trying incense the mob takes this to an even lower level.
(And I am none of those people listed.)
VW http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKvo6-5EUPQ
Nothing from the agency yet then? not like them to be so quiet for so long.
Slack to post the names of people, the majority of who, probably had nothing to do with it.
@Dear@10:35
Reprinting the credits list from an earlier spot in the campaign, with a question mark about the agency campaign team is “a spiteful petroleum-based barb, anonymously poured on the flames?” and “one of the lowest posts (you) have ever read?”
Where did you drink lunch?
So. The lynch mob has circled.
There’s blood in the water and the scavengers can smell an agency exposed.
I’m not going to condone the commercial.
I think others have said everything there is to be said.
But a team will probably never work again based on this.
They’ll presumably pay the ultimate price. Deserved or not.
And they’ll be people you know. People you’ve had beers with. People you’ve had a laugh with.
So, are you happy now?
Do you want to print more unsubstantiated lists of people you think might be involved.
Hey, what about printing their home addresses? Mobile numbers?
The blog at its most horrific. So much hatred. So many politics.
The lynch mob. The crowd at the hanging. No blood yet, but we WANT IT NOW. We want to SEE IT. And if we can’t find the names, we’ll just print lists of anyone we can think of – send the ad to newspapers to make sure the bloodletting is even greater.
I hate this place. I hate it.
Well said 1:29.
@Are you entertained?
A lynch mob, and of course we understand your additional association and slur with the owner of this blog, is any large group of people inflamed by a substantial wrong who take revenge on the first potential target they encounter, irrespective of their guilt, in order to quench their anger.
Is re-posting a credits list for the agency associated with the CAN’T campaign, the creators of the idea and the executives in charge of the campaign in its entirety, and a list that has been posted by that agency themselves on this blog at every opportunity with the campaign, curiously save this most recent and offensive example, a “lynching”?
We haven’t seen anyone stand up and take any degree of credit for this horrendous breach of public decency, not the client’s marketing team, not the agency, not the production company, no one, but it’s hard to imagine that another agency, and another creative team somehow made a tvc in London and put it up on the CommBank site without anyone, the client, the agency of record knowing about it, and yet your response is to attack the messengers, the people spreading the word that this kind of outlandish behaviour will not stand without someone taking a fall for their deeds.
Let’s for a moment imagine how it feels for the families of those killed or injured in terrorist bombings in London, or Madrid, or NYC, or Bali to see this kind of horror exploited for profit by a group of immature, insensitive, and generally uncaring ad men and women. How do you think it makes the majority of the public feel about what we all do for a living? At what point did any of the people from the client, the agency, the production company, or even the actors stop and ask themselves if this was something that they wanted as human beings to participate in?
The list that was posted and was stated as such was the credits for the previous tvc. It was posted with a question mark, no addresses, no mobile numbers, and no accusations of any kind. It was a list found on this very blog as part of the PR for this campaign, and yet you make it seem as if this were some sort of ‘outing’ of private and non-disclosed information. Look in the mirror, because it’s you who are illegitimately inflaming this situation and twisting the responsibility for wrong doing and where it legitimately lies.
Lastly, no one wants to see someone lose their livelihood, but in this particular case, maybe another career for those involved might be a better idea for everyone, the creators, the enablers, the distributors, and the people who have to see work of this kind put out into the media space and ask themselves what kind of people would do this for a living.
In many corners of the world right now people are planting bombs in public spaces with the intent of killing innocents in order to take revenge for wrongs they somehow feel have been done to them. The situation is a horrific human tragedy wherever it occurs and under no circumstances is it to be grist for the mill of advertising people to promote their products. It’s not funny, and more than that it’s not right.
for the client, leaving the agency to hang in the wind over this. Unauthorized my arse.
I understand terrorism is not amusing. Innocent people getting blown up is horrific.
Having said that, this ad is having fun with security, not terrorism.
I know it’s splitting hairs. I know athletes have been slaughtered at Olympics. I know London was bombed a few years ago.
That’s not the subject of this ad. It’s using an over-zealous security guard in a fun way.
It’s not a good piece of work. It was obviously at risk of receiving a backlash. But I think everyone can chill out a little.
In my experience, people who take the moral high ground usually only do so when it suits them.
Come on people, let’s go for triple figures!
whinge whinge whinge, whinge whinge whinge. it’s all about me because I’m english and like to blow things out of proportion, where is my LAFTA, this place is nothing like old blighty, I miss my mum.
@ Anonymous
No one’s perfect; we’re all flawed human beings, but the cynical notion that no one observes morality, or is capable of legitimately critiquing someone else’s display of a lack of moral judgement, unless of course it suits their personal whim, is a bit dark even for an advertising blog.
It’s also a bit of a throw away line that absolves anyone for anything in your amoral wash of personal experience, where responsibility for one’s actions is negotiable.
Yes, you’re splitting hairs, mincing right and wrong as if they were equivalent, and making our industry seem even more bankrupt than it actually is . . . no easy task, but you’ve succeeded.
Muddy the waters all you wish, but this ad was more than wrong, and all the people associated with its getting so far down the line that it went out into the world deserve to have their feet held to the fire, in the hope that it will dissuade others from more of the same.
Hate breeds hate.
I quite liked it
Yes it was a bad idea.
Yes the client must have approved it (anyone ever heard of running ads clients haven’t approved? Hardly likely).
But it was a silly video about having fun with a security guard, not anything to do with condoning bombs. If Sacha Baron what’s his face made it nobody would blink (and would probably think was amusing).
It ran for one night and was swiftly removed.
Nobody was hurt.
The Bank has apologised.
But the hatred, the vitriol, the sheer thirst for blood on this site has become a total disgrace (and usually from the same small group of acid minds).
Get over yourselves and move on.
C’mon…no sane CMO or agency will ever endorse such a commercial if it wasn’t a teaser to a comeback which will get everyone going:’Nice one! Almost had me.”
Right?
There’s a comeback right?
just don’t leave us hanging too long.
I bet it’s gonna be a great one, after all the CMO’s the bee’s knees isn’t he?
And write some ads. If you spent half as much time doing that as you did composing your badly crafted diatribes you might not suck as much as creatives.
Time to roll up my sleeping bag, pack my tent, douse the ol’ camp fire and head off for greener pastures. There are many things about this work and the ensuing storm of petty vitriol being slung about in its wake that I believe to be symptoms of broader issues with this industry at large.
Good luck, I wish you all well.
@move on
The total disgrace on this site, as always, is the grow up, get over it, get a life, move on crowd. Always the apologists for bad work, bad ideas, bad behaviour (“Nobody was hurt. The Bank apologised. It ran for one night.”), and always looking to self-appoint as the judges of what’s wrong with the users of this site, that is to say those of us who dare to criticise what we see PR’d here in anonymity.
Make no mistake, these voices are coming from the same group of small-minded assholes who are trying to pass off their actions as harmless indiscretions, their work as allot more creative than it usually is, and their ideas as their own, when they’re far too often ripped from someone else, somewhere far from here, in the hope that no one will notice.
Get over us, because speaking truth to power on this site and others is here to stay.
Amazing! I seriously thought this would make headlines in the U.K about ‘how thoughtless and insensitive of an Aussie bank to release an ad making fun of bombs in London’, but nothing. Absolutely nothing. Someone earlier even said they had sent the story through to a number of papers in the U.K and U.S. Now, either we are all being waaaaay too sensitive about this or (and personally the conspiracy theory side of me would like to think this is the real reason) someone up high at the bank – and I’m talking real high – has pulled some big strings to ‘make this disappear’.
“Hey Rupert, how are you? Yeah look, we part with a serious amount of dosh with you guys in media spend. I want this unfortunate story buried – capisce?”
Which Bank just fucked up? Someone have the balls to take it on the chin and stop passing the buck. M&C made it and the bank approved it. A combined apology please. Now CAN we please move on.
Poor form client, poor form agency.
It should never have been presented, it should never gone past scribbles on A3 bleed proof paper. It should never have made it through countless creative reviews or boarded for client presentation. Agency started this, client tried to finish it, poorly.
Someone flagged it as poor taste, somewhere down the line, everyone knew what they were getting into and they all knew it would cause a stir. If they didn’t, then they’re as brainless as this spot. It’s advertising people, no one’s threatening to kill your children if you don’t produce a CBA ad. Take the heat, have a few shots, learn that the public don’t think a terrorist act is amusing and don’t fucking do it again.
Move on
If you are going to make a politically incorrect ad because its funny,
Make sure it IS funny.
@fark off
Your argument is as intelligent as your vocabulary is broad; no comment on the crafting of your composition.
@vanishing act
MSN has it in the UK
http://news.uk.msn.com/blog/trending-blogpost.aspx?post=8877b285-629e-488c-a8c6-e0a6947f6e3c
Street & Smith reposting the Guardian
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Global/Issues/2012/08/03/Olympics/Terror.aspx
But no Murdoch papers . . . big surprise.
Oh, the righteous indignation from a bunch of prostitutes.
It’s appalling, it’s far from funny, and it’s blown up in their faces. How could the creators have been so sure that it was never going to happen anyway?
We’re talking about the Magnusson ad, right?
I have no problem being a prostitute. It is an honest, honourable and reasonably well-paid profession.
Shitting in bed while on the job is usually to be avoided however.
Goodnight nurse.
anyone ever seen Louis CK’s stand-up bit on 9/11? fucking hilarious. stop being so uptight people
Is this supposed to be advertising? I’ve worked in brand management for purple chip brands for 25 years and can say, with confidence, that no-one with any intelligence, integrity or professional capability would have written the brief for this, nor made this ‘thing’. I can only assume it’s a spoof made by some amateur pranksters with time on their hands between welfare cheques.
As a Brit I’m especially saddened that anyone would do this. It’s grossly offensive and insensitive.
Are you guys serious? It wasn’t that bad. Pressed play in anticipation of a horror show and ended up with a video that was… Whatever.