This ad shows a middle-aged man tooling around his kitchen
in the middle of the night while we get the spiel about investing for
retirement, yadda yadda. And then, near the end of the spot, his daughter
sneaks into the house with her shoes off, and dad’s right there to catch her.
Then the announcer says planning for retirement may be the least of your
worries (!). Thanks, that’s very reassuring.
Yes, your daughter might be sexually active, pregnant, addicted
to drugs, or trying to join ISIS! So worry more about that stuff, and don’t pay
attention to what your investment bank is doing with your money. (I trust them;
don’t you?)
This ad feels like a classic: “Hey, look over there!”
attempt. And after the financial crash, maybe it’s not the best approach for an investment company. I
mean, it’s funny and all, but it still seems like an attempt at misdirection,
and I think investment banks need to be careful about that after they crashed
the economy and stole a lot of people’s money with impunity. (<BTW: I’m not
accusing PNC Investments of any of this; I am merely stating that this industry
should be careful with their advertising strategies for a while due to the
trust issue, as a lot of people are still mad and {understandably} mistrustful.)
Here’s the staying up spot:
But at least, when this girl gets into trouble, nobody can say: “Where were the parents?”
