Well, I guess I never thought I’d see this: A bank is using the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail as their mascot, since other banks charge “an arm and a leg” (get it?) to transfer money, etc. I guess now I’ve seen everything!
But what a great, fun idea! Everyone who is liable to be transferring money nowadays was once, perhaps even recently, a stoned college student watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail, right? So it’s perfect, even if the movie is really old at this point! It’s like The Rocky Horror Picture Show: it never dies or seems to age, so it’s always perfect to exploit for advertising! So where are all those “Frank N. Furter” ads for Victoria’s Secret lingerie? You know someone would appreciate them! They could call the collection: “Out of this world!”
Or how about this: Goodyear Tires show Brad & Janet getting in trouble in Rocky Horror, and then they say they could have avoided the whole affair if they had only used the Goodyear steel-belted self-inflating tires on their car! (etc.) But then they would have continued being squares, I guess. But hey: there’s a huge market for squares out there, I’ll bet! There’s more of them than there are of us!
Oh, but back to this Black Knight idea: this campaign has to get better, or it’s a one trick pony! That means they have to show the Black Knight trying to transfer money and getting his arms and legs cut off by greedy bankers, with blood and gore spraying out everywhere! You know those bloodthirsty gorehounds would love it! XOOM would get the whole Lucio Fulci fan base exclusively! It’s a perfect strategy! Just only show these ads before NC-17 horror movies! It would be great!
Oh, but transferring money isn’t the only place where you have to pay exorbitant fees, now is it? Of course it’s not! So then we’d have to see the knight trying to get cash out of another bank’s ATM, and then a sword comes out and cuts his appendages off! You know you want to see it! Then his bloody stump torso goes hopping into the Better Business Bureau to complain, leaving a red gore trail like a crawling slimy snail! It’s a winner!
And… This is an outrage! This ad is not online! (That I can find.) What the hell are they doing not putting this up for social media to forward to everyone for free! Then everyone would see it, and it wouldn't cost the company anything! What idiots! Smart commercial: dumb internet (non) implementation!
But to make up for its absence, I’ll post a link to this other Monty Python-themed ad for GMAIL (Very good use of the skit! {Although I don’t know if GMAIL helps much with avoiding spam.}):
