If I hear one more smarmy ad from a bank telling me how tough times are for me I am going to deposit something on their doorstep.

Well, it seems that the marketing managers at many of the mega banks are being directed to warm it up. Research has come back and told the high ups that.. guess what, times are tough out there for real folks too. So the marketing machine has been turned on and is spewing out sap about how tough times are. How little Suzy still should go to college and we are in there with you. What the??? Are you kidding? Wachovia is now my pal, my side kick in this. After years of horrible customer service…The best thing that ever happened to that bank is that Wells Fargo came in and saved them. But they are also guilty of this latest marketing sledgehammer of subtlety. For gods sake just be a bank when you are that size. We get it… stop telling me you are a local bank. Because you aren’t. I know  it, you know it, my 19 year old son knows it. He just signed up for a checking account at Colorado Sate Bank.. Why them? Because of the name, he said. I know they are at least only in Colorado. My point is, from a creative POV it’s not only clumsy to be “connecting” to me in this way, it’s bad marketing. Imagine me, there I am cleaning my car, wondering if I can make the next payment, and the ad comes on the radio…. We know  how tough it is for you.. blah blah… Now.. Now I am reminded again about how my life sucks. Is that a good image to tie with the bank… NO way. You are only leveraging a negative emotion. Thus tying your brand with how life is bad right now…. How about talking about how things are getting better, that just over the financial horizon your car will be paid off and we are offering ways for that to happen. How about saying that your recent high school grad should go to college because if there was ever a time to go it’s now. Since no one will have a job for them… Sorry, I couldn’t help saying this…