Angry tennis star John McEnroe replaces John Cleese in Bankwest ads
Bankwest has recruited tennis legend John McEnroe for a new campaign for its retail and business banking which launched last year with a series of spots fronted by John Cleese.
Created by Host, the spots feature Bankwest staff member Katie, who also appeared in the John Cleese ads, talking to McEnroe who says he is channelling his rage into a “rage puppet”.
Host ECD Julian Watt said: “We launched the campaign with Cleese, who’s classic grumpy. But this time round, we wanted someone more volatile, more impatient and more of a benchmark for where the bank has set their goals to satisfy the most demanding of customers. John, as always, over delivered.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yI3HSZBQoY
I really don’t care if a bank account takes 10 mins to setup. I care about how long things take when I’m a customer.
Well… That was weird.
It just reminds me of the premise of that Mel Gibson movie, The Beaver.
You’re kidding? Bankwest spends a motza on John Cleese (this guy does NOT come cheap, especially not when he’s working to pay off his most recent divorce) and barely six months on you swap him out? And as Ryan@11.17am says, I care less that it takes less than 10 minutes to open an account than how the treat me as a customer for the years to come!
Worst ad of 2015 so far… and will be hard to beat!!
The early happy banking work from Host was so much better than this.
Uggh terrible terrible idea. Worst ad for 2015 so far. To quote McEnroe himself: “You are the pits of the world! Vultures! Trash!”
No more mojo in the brand.
Without happy banking there’s no soul to the brand anymore and it looks very bleak for the future unless there’s an interesting and ownable take on ‘easy’ that it can secure.