Ah yes. Halifax. The building society. Formally famous for plunging branch manager Howard into the bright glow of irony laced fame, before casting their nets further afield for other employees who could sing and dance and would do so for not a penny more than their regular wages.
Halifax. They’re back. And this time they’re… um… well.. I’m not entirely sure. They appear to be running a radio station; whether that’s some kind of special in branch radio station or not is never explained. Maybe it’s a training radio station, or maybe it’s some kind of volunteer broadcast service. I just don’t know.
I’m genuinely confused. For the life of me I can’t work out what the idea behind these ads are. Why are they running a radio station, and why are they doing it with the idiotic half-arsed amateurism of a local station? We’ve all heard them; hateful chirpy fuckwits prattling on about local farm events with the kind of perky faux enthusiasm usually employed by golddigging relatives eagerly lapping up the final confused warbles of a dying relative. Why the fuck would Halifax want to be associated with that?
I genuinely don’t know what’s going on. They’re clearly learning the ropes or else they wouldn’t be so cock-a-hoop with joy at working out how to use a fader – who put them on the radio in the first place, why is a building society spending its money teaching its staff how to be DJ’s when it has absolutely fucking nothing to do with money management? I don’t want my financial institutions to spend their time learning whimsical trades, I want them to do what they’re meant to be good at.
Who would listen to it? Does every song have to have some kind of tenuous link to bargain saving deals? How does that mug break? It looks like the handle falls off, and why is that so goddam funny when all there’s all that expensive equipment around. And, more importantly though, what has any of this got to do with a building society? How is the sexual tension between two bank employees on some kind of job-share-apprenticeship scheme meant to convince me to invest my hard-earned money?
I honestly lay awake at night thinking about this stuff. Who thought of this campaign, who agreed it? What the fuck does it have to do with anything, other than make me hate local radio even more than I already do. If these people are startled by basic cross-fading skills and find a mysteriously well timed and structually dubious mug breakage hilarious I’m not so sure I trust them to navigate the troubled and treacherous waters of financial prosperity.
Halifax: our staff are worse than local DJ’s.
I think the Halifax want their staff to appear to be cool, human and approachable. I agree with you that the staff only act like amateurs and do not sell the financial products on offer. Your blog post however, was an absolute joy to read!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Halifax FM needs to have an accident made out of fire.
They’ve started showing that fucking contemptible sack of shit again.
It makes angry, and I would never go near Halifax for this specific reason.
Thank God it’s not just me. What on earth is it all about? But there is something scarily compelling about it. The way that she says ‘ISA, ISA, baby’…
They do it to make you remember the advert, even for bad reasons. They do it to make people write about the advert on the internet, so other people see and remember the advert, even for bad reasons. They are evil and now I have seen the advert, written about it, and will probably remember it with such hatred that i tell someone in the pub about Halifax and their crap adverts. They are good at their jobs. The bastards.
The bank is trying to portray its self as friendly, approachable and human. Not the cynical avaricious thieving scum they really are. When City bankers are making such obscene bonuses you know that someone has to be getting fucked and it’s the rest of us that are getting slipped a length. I’ve got about as much time for these people as for someone who cons their way into your grannies house and then steals her pension, which is basically what they are doing.
I find it highly patronising that we might actually fall for this load of old cobblers when we know that the financial products they a selling are basically shite.
To add insult to injury we have already given the useless cunts £25 Billion in a bailout package.
Oh lucky lucky us