Simon Baker is back in new global ANZ ads
Simon Baker as Patrick Jane in ANZ ad
ANZ has launched the next installment of its global ad campaign featuring Patrick Jane, the lead character from The Mentalist played by Simon Baker.
The Mentalist star replaced the memorable Barbara the banker, a creation of ANZ’s former agency M&C Saatchi, in May last year, and the ads took some criticism because of the Baker’s American accent.
In a press release, ANZ said that the first instalment “scored above average on all key diagnostic measures particularly in key segments within growth markets.”
The ads just don’t work, he has as much charisma as a dog with a head swap operation. And the ad tells//sells me nothing about the bank!
“The news ads carry the tagline ‘We live in world’”
Think there is a typo here. Think the tagline is “We live in your world” with the o being a fingerprint for some reason.
Hi jane,
Thanks for flagging that up – sorted.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
As someone who has never seen the Mentalist, nor even knows what the show is about: this campaign is completely lost on me, as I simply don’t know why Simon Baker-Denny is speaking ‘Murrikan.
@auntieviewer – 100% agree with you. It took several weeks of seeing the last campaign for someone to tell me who this annoying american guy is who randomly starts talking to a woman in a park about homeloans!
Seems to me like a very strange way to try to target the masses when you are guaranteed a high % of wastage from those viewers who have never watched The Mentalist (and looking at total population vs viewing figures, thats alot!!)
I actually don’t mind these, but then I watch the Mentalist so I get the character and what he represents.
But I do not in any way believe for a second that ANZ lives in my world. The fuckers live in a golden palace built on a foundation of precious gemstones. And every morning at 11, they get the binoculars out and laugh at my puny little house in my ordinary suburb.
So do the ads make more sense if you’ve watched the Mentalist?
Agree with @patrick, hate these ads, they mean nothing to me!
This being a “global ad campaign” that ‘builds their profile in key markets through Asia Pacific’ it’s more likely to appeal to (and have more of an effect on) different markets than Australia.
It seems to just be a bland tv spot with a local v/o.
I think they are great, and am not a Mentalist viewer. They are different and interesting. He could be a fresh character, and not even from the Mentalist, that you would be asked to ‘get’ and I am sure you would be perfectly able to ‘get’ it – but just because they have been clever and taken the character from a show (instead of developed a new one) you get confused. I don’t ‘get’ that.
They make me want to change banks. I’m off the the Cmonwelch
Simon Baker has one of the best hairpieces in the world. He should do ads for Ashley and Martin.
the core problem is that he doesn’t live in MY world
fail
Have to agree with Auntie and Patrick. I find the ads condescending and Baker’s character pretentious. Even my mentalist-watching friends who know the back story can’t stand them. We ‘get’ them; we just don’t think they work.
I hate these ANZ ads too! The best bank ads are by Rabodirect.
There’s nothing like walking through Jakarta and seeing a huge billboard saying “We live in your world” written in English.
Bizzarely bland.
Patrick Jane on the surface level.
But nothing like the character on the show, who is, basically, an intelligent, charming prick who offends pretty much everyone he comes in contact with…
they need to bring back barb
The pitch brief was use ‘We live in your world’. Whybins did.
The Mentalist character is a great symbol of that.
The pitch brief was make it work across Asia. The Mentalist character does.
Lesson: To win business, listen and work with the hand you’re given.
One day this campaign will change – but it’ll be Whybins doing the change,
not the agencies who wanted to change it from day one.
Boy are you people ever hard on Simon Baker……it’s only a commercial, live with it. Please be kind and don’t reply
@ Worldly view i get the idea of playing with the hand you’re dealt to win the pitch, all good. But i don’t get how the Mentalist character is a great symbol of ‘We live in your world’?
He’s more like the character Monk (that is a twitchy savant with limited social skills) than someone you are likely to know, how does that fit?
On top of that if you don’t know the character Simon Baker is portraying, you are left with trying to work out how a rich and successful Aussie export actor ‘lives in your world’, which clearly he doesn’t.
Rob, I believe he is well known for that character. And I believe he symbolises ‘living in your world’ because he/bank intuitively understands the customers needs.
I’m not saying its he greatest campaign of all time, but considering the mandatories its a pretty smart response.
So, lets agree to disagree on this one.