In this commercial for Chase bank’s Quick Deposit service, a
woman at the zoo (?) takes a picture of her check on her cell phone, and she tells her little
daughter that it automatically sends the check to the bank. (Yes, I always take my checks to the zoo to deposit them, don’t you?) Then she turns her
camera to the lion exhibit and takes a picture of one of the lions, to which
her daughter worriedly blurts out: “No, Mommy, no!” Oh, but by this point it’s
too late, and we see a lion appearing inside the bank, and it ruthlessly hunts
down and attacks everyone who works there, tearing them limb-from-limb, and
eating them all in a freshly tapped geyser of bright red gore! Except that this
ad is actually in black & white, so we have to imagine the color ourselves.
And that’s why they made this ad in black & white to begin with: so it wouldn’t
be too objectionably gory.
Oh, but this scenario would probably make most of the
country cheer right about now, what with all the bank bailouts, the obscenely
huge taxpayer-funded bonuses pilfered from the bailouts, and all the mortgage
scams, improper robo-signings of home foreclosures, subsequent increased fees
and penalties, etc., following in the wake of the financial crisis! So when the
kid panics that her mother has sent a ravenous lion to the bank, rather than
say: “Don’t worry honey, it only works on checks”, the mother could say: “Oh,
honey: they deserve it for what they’ve done! Remember sweet Mr. Johnston who
committed suicide last year? That’s because his bank scammed him out of his
life savings, and then they fraudulently foreclosed on his home, causing his
family to break apart, and the stress and devastation of it all was too much
for him to bear! And what about Grandma? She lives with us now because of a
robo-signing error that got her thrown out of her home, too. And her life
savings also went up in smoke in the financial crash, even though she was a
careful and responsible investor, but her bank executives made out like bandits
with massive golden parachutes and millions in bonuses galore! Just imagine if
she had nowhere to go: She would be homeless now! No, honey: sending lions is
the least they deserve, since the government is doing little to nothing to
prosecute the wrongdoers here. I’m just waiting for all the other banks to
start offering this service, so I can set up accounts with them too and send
all the wild animals I can find over there was well!”
Oh, but then again, I guess that’s not quite as pithy as
what she really says in the ad. And since it’s an ad for a bank, I suppose they
wouldn’t suggest we punish them in any way whatsoever for all they’ve done to screw so
many people over during the past few years, huh? But perhaps a credit union could make the ad I’ve laid
out above as a joke on the Chase ad. Now that would be fun, since they weren’t
part of the mortgage meltdown, I don’t think, so maybe they could afford to throw a
few stones.
Here’s the ferocious jungle cat chase commercial:
BTW: This is just a joke, and I’m not advocating sending
wild animals into banks. I’m merely skewering this Chase bank ad because it
completely suggests this idea, and they’re apparently too thick to recognize
it. Or did the ad creatives do it intentionally so we would all think of this
and laugh heartily? It’s hard to imagine they didn’t do it on purpose! But this
whole financial services clusterƒµ¢k notwithstanding, this commercial is really
sweet and fun and cute, and I do love it. Plus, it’s really easy to make fun of, so there’s that too!
But, I really feel I must point out that the lion in this ad ignores the bank patrons completely, and makes a beeline straight for the bank employees, so the underlying message of this spot, whether intentional or not, is pretty hard to miss! And I would really think that banks in this resentment-filled environment of late would want to completely avoid scenarios in their ads that might make it look as if they are being “thrown to the lions”, but whatever.
But, I really feel I must point out that the lion in this ad ignores the bank patrons completely, and makes a beeline straight for the bank employees, so the underlying message of this spot, whether intentional or not, is pretty hard to miss! And I would really think that banks in this resentment-filled environment of late would want to completely avoid scenarios in their ads that might make it look as if they are being “thrown to the lions”, but whatever.
