Monday, May 7, 2012

Chase Quick Deposit Lion Ad

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.