Simon Baker, translated

wow if ANZ can get people doing much thinking about their advertising they’re streets ahead of anyone else

I’m thinking he is playing his character from The Mentalist and that ANZ are targeting all the women who think he is good looking.

Can someone from the agency explain why they wanted him to keep his American accent? I’d love to know.

This is what I’m thinking:

1. Why is the Aussie speaking like a yank to Australians. (Answer: he’s in a TV show I’ve never seen where he talks like that)

2. Who briefed/wrote/approved the dialogue? It sounds like a bad new age vision statement rather than anything a consumer might desire. Utter utter drivel!

And here is Simon Baker sounding Australian on Ellen and ‘speaking american’ as well
http://youtu.be/fKDDRsLPoNg

I’d also like to know why Simon or his character in the ad studiously avoids making “eye contact” through about 27 seconds of the 30 second spot? He looks shifty – and the accent doesn’t help.

Aren’t they just using his character from The Mentalist? Same accent, attire and he’s reading minds: “I know what you’re thinking…”
It’s not Simon Baker advertising ANZ, it’s Patrick Jane.

His accent is very nearly as bewildering as the music.
Half American Beauty soundtrack, half text message notification played on a marimba.
Odd.

I am so glad that you are addressing this as it has been infuriating me ever since I saw it a couple of days ago.
Someone tell them that to intentionally develop an American accent doesn’t mean you have evolved into a more aspirational human being. So there, that is what I am thinking ANZ…in case you were trying to read my mind. So patronising. FAIL.

Yeah, i also think its a bit weird….Aussie speaking to Aussies, for Aussie product with a septic tank accent.

I would have thought it was extremely obvious that he is playing his character in The Mentalist.

It’s only obvious he’s playing his character from The Mentalist to people who’ve seen the show. For those of us who haven’t, it was a bit weird.

sorry lauren, not enough people watch the show…….so if anz wanted to only market to people who know the character then maybe they could have only run ads during the mentalist.

the mystery deepened for the rest of us who know him as the face and (aussie) voice of samsung, so leaving him wandering the street towards camera jibbering to himself with no-one knowing it was an anz ad just made it all the more confusing.

indulgent wank all up, and the exact opposite of single-minded and clear communications. 30 seconds of the ANZ logo with no sound would have done a better job for them, and saved a bucketload of money.

I agree with Deson, the first time I saw it I was thinking why isn’t he looking at the camera, it makes him look really dodgy. Accent didn’t phase me because I’m probably used to hearing him speak as an American.

Using a character from a TV show might work if said character was recognisable, i.e. George Costanza or Don Draper.

Lauren, as others have pointed out, The Mentalist rates around 1 million. There’s almost 22 million people in Australia, but let’s be generous and say there’s 20 million people in Australia who have absolutely no idea why Simon Baker is speaking in an American accent and not looking at the camera.

They’re thinking, WTF?

sorry talentfail, you’ve had a logicfail

people who know the character extend way beyond the regular or even occassional viewer

it is indeed extremely obvious to a couple of million people that Baker is playing this character from a popular TV show

i don’t watch the show but i’ve seen the promos and know he plays the Mentalist.
i also know the Mentalist reads peoples minds

i therefore get the ad.

sorry sven, this whole discussion thread proves my point……lets be generous and say a couple of million are broadly aware of the character beyond the less than 1 million who watch the show. that’s 3 million who “get the ad”.

that leaves a huge number completely in the dark, which adds up to a whole lot of waste for ANZ. as someone else said, george costanza would have been a better option as talent in terms of recognition factor.

and we’re in the industry and pay attention to this stuff. imagine the poor sods just going about living their lives and not trying to dissect and interpret every marketing message that crosses their path. they walk away going “ANZ = weird” and leave it at that.

if anz could really read my mind they’d offer better service, lower fees and less claptrap advertising that talks down to me.

how the marketing departments and ad agencies of these banks get away with this rubbish is beyond me.

I want my bank to be more human, more real by using my iPhone to check my balance.

Mmmmm I don’t think he knows what I am thinking.

And yes I guess The Mentalist reference but its still crap in what ever accent.

Dear Sven,

This ad is crap. Really, really crap.

Stop repeatedly defending it, your bias is so clear for all to see.

The Mentalist is not a particularly popular TV show. It has an audience of less than 750,000 people in Australia. If you haven’t seen the show, you don’t get the ad.

I feel very sorry for all at DDB and M&C who have to watch this tripe knowing that after years of hard (and for the most part good) work on ANZ they have been royally shafted.

Sven I watch loads of tv and i didn’t get it.

I was expecting him to crack out the strine at the end…at least that may have made it slightly amusing. Creative fail.

Sven, your defence reeks of desperation. Your campaign has failed miserably.

C’mon Sven. Identify yourself.

Whether he uses an American accent, is from the Mentalist, “isn’t that Simon Baker?”, or, “I thought we were watching Masterchef, not The Mentalist” it all adds up to ANZ and Whybins confusing the viewer who then ignores the product. Ad text books call it a Video Vampire. Laurence Olivier once did the same thing to Poloroid.
This will result in absolutely zero new account customers to ANZ.

Oh dear.
I hadn’t noticed Sven trying to defend his work here, as well.
Sven – if you don’t believe us, just wait until your first ad-tracker debrief…

@Confused – the campaign has failed miserably… right… two days in and you can tell that?

The fact someone has written a new script, dubbed it and it’s gone viral is surely a good sign.

We spend so much time knocking people down, whinging, bitching moaning, instead of acknowledging the good – why is that?

Simon Baker has come a hell of a long way, pity he had to move to America to make that happen – as do most Aussie actors. And wait, hang on, if he did a smash-hit, block buster movie we’d all be loving him.

Part and parcel with moving to the US for work is, wait for it, perfecting an American accent to gain the American roles. Whether he was ‘using his US accent as a character’ for the campaign or not is by the by.

ANZ, nice to see you embracing Australian talent. Whybin, congrats on the pitch win and getting this campaign to market so quickly. Whether it ‘works’ in the bank brand ratings or not will be interesting to see, but hey, they’re talking about you! (Whether they’ve got the balls to name themselves or not).

For once, can you lot just put away the claws and be nice to each other? Geezuz.

You’d think the success of the nab campaign might have inspired their competitors to do something extraordinary (in a good sense!). But clearly not.

Anyone remember Clems first efforts on NAB? They took a couple of goes to find their feet.

Let’s give the bank and Whybins some breathing space and get back to work.

Mentalist Schmentalist. Whatever. Give me this over the Westpac abortion any day of the week.

I agree, Jana. We should be fair. But, objectively, this is a bad ad.

It’s 30 seconds of talking head that doesn’t leave the viewer with a clear impression of anything, except Simon Baker. It’s a lost opportunity. Maybe they could have done something really funny or involving with the Mentalist character, but they haven’t.

And that really is a shame.

Who owes a bank the benefit of the doubt given how they treat all us schmucks? They’ve put up a pretty shite ad (though well done to Simon Baker for pulling the fee) after ditching the previous agency, and while punters couldn’t give a toss about that, you’ve got to wonder what ANZ were thinking to end up here creatively speaking.

And let’s consider the arrogant insight that they “know what I’m thinking” – strategically this is not sound because any of us who have dealt with any of the big four know the missing bit of that insight is “and we don’t give a toss”.

Who else is sick of this motherhood rubbish from banks WHEN NO-ONE BELIEVES THEM. Spend some money fixing the real issues and delivering real value, not wasting money trying to sell us the unsellable and lining yet another celebrity’s pockets.

In the last week i’ve been in three of the big four in North Sydney. I don’t bank with NAB. They’re not on my radar. Regardless of that (Lion-winning) switch stuff.

ComBank is still TRYING to be different. But they still deserve to be in the process of losing me as a customer. You can try. Doesn’t mean you’ll succeed.

At Westpac they are splendid. And helpful. I’d recommend Westpac on Miller Street to anyone. (NOt the one on Walker Street – they’re ordinary in comparison).

And today in ANZ on Miller Street they guy clearly didn’t know what I was thinking. It took a while to explain a simple request. But we got there eventually.

My point? Similar to that made by Rob above (4.36)

All this advertising is like the tail wagging the dog. Banks need to improve their (data-driven & personalised) service & one-to-one communication. And consistency is vital. Then worry about their ATL & PR campaigns. Maybe they could all learn a trick from Westpac, Miller Street, North Sydney.

hey James @6.14 if you’re in north sydney head to the hsbc branch at corner of miller/pacific highway…..i went there 6 months ago when i broke up with nab and can’t believe the difference. i walk in and am greeted by name, the senior relationship manager is contactable anytime on mobile and email and they get stuff done.

i’ve seen the future of banking for me and it ain’t any of the big four.

The top video doesn’t play. I think it’s supposed to show this video… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUb8s5uWUsI

Tim,
You’re slowly allowing the mumbrella blog to morph into another bile infected CB blog. Much of the commentary here is from people whose understanding of our business is shallow at best. Anyone involved in this pitch would know that ‘We live in your world’ was a mandatory. Whybins won because they managed to make it work better than its competitors – task 1 achieved – win the business. It’s an impossible positioning to work with, yet they managed to give it a pretty interesting make-over and with a personality – [a big added benefit in Asia]. They mightn’t be the best ads of all time, but time will tell if they’re the right ones. Its a pity more people in our business didn’t understand the difference. And Tim, if you want mumbrella to stand for something a little better than your competitors, weed out the bile and try and ensure the commentary, whether for or against, adds to the debate, not detract from it. It’s your call.

The “We live in your world” line is an interesting one. And a juicy challenge for any agency. First time I saw it, it was on a huge poster, on top of a building in the city. Postmodern irony? Not really. To me it just said “we live in a world up here, on expensive poster sites in the sky. You live in a world down there, amongst the homeless people and traffic fumes”.

It’s not an easy one to work with – but it does offer some interesting opportunities.

Unfortunately this launch ad for the campaign just reinforces to me, once again, that this is a big corporation that really has no idea of what my world is like, let alone actually “lives” in it.

Having said all that, it’s nicely produced (apart from the dodgy post work on the sign when he walks in front of it) and if it blocks that heinous Westpac campaign from even one ad break that I’m exposed to then I thank them for small mercies.

Just to add some hard data to the debate. If you look through the ratings for the premiere episides of The Mentalist over the past 18 months 60% of people have seen at least 5 minutes of at least one episode. So to follow other people’s logic that would be around 13 million people in the consideration set of those who would be ‘aware’ of Simon Baker as Patrick Jane. And based on a sample of n=1 (i.e. myself) I have never watched an episode and even I knew the character – they are called promos.

Thank you John Grono

Sven,

You’re fired.

The ad is even sadder considering the fact that Barbara from Bank World (and the agency producing the ads) was dumped for this. I doubt people will even remember this ad yet Barbara has thousands of views (and a couple of remixes) on youtube.