Westpac’s ‘powerful’, ‘moving’ and ‘brave’ ad about death wins Mumbrella’s July Ad of the Month

I’m on the fence with this. I agree its a great ad in terms of storytelling… but I just don’t understand what they are selling or how they are tying themselves back to the brand. I watched this with my wife last night and she was equally confused as to what it all meant. How do Westpac play any role in the death of someone Jenny Melhuish explains it better above, but the ad doesn’t. I’d make a quick edit to the ending to say something like “a third of our customers who lose a loved one will experience financial hardship within the first 12 months – At such times we’re here to help” (get the copywriters to tidy it up)

This would be a far stronger call to action – and then an excellent ad

Its a beautiful piece of film making and brought a tear to my eye.

However it could not be more INappropriate for a bank to run something like that on the back of charging dead people for services and truly being difficult to deal with when someone dies. What possibly could have been the insight that built this ad? Where is their strategic agency saying- are you sure?
What is the CMO thinking?

One other thought…take the westpac logo off the end and you could run this awesome commercial for half a dozen categories from insurance, super, health etc…how does that work for westpac in differentiating it from competitors in their category.

An incredible film.
Crap bank strategy

don’t really see how this ad is brilliant, the bank was brave to do something that is pretty much unbranded but the execution just misses a beat or two trying to hard to be sentimental.

I agree – nice ad but it’s not Westpac or any Bank.

That was an ad for Westpac? When I saw it on TV, I had assumed it was NRMA. it was on in the background, and I never caught a glimpse of the end frame.

It’s a nice piece of film, but it’s not an ad. The average Australian is not going to come away with an understanding as to what Westpac means to them.

I agree with Mark Ritson’s recent op-ed – Australian marketing is shithouse.

Yes great add but if you are on a credit report agency you will not get a cent if you are dying and you don’t pay your mortgage they will drag to court to take your house and lev you to die on the street bastards look what they have done at the royal commission

Westpac has been running with depressing advertising for years. I don’t get it. Surely you want to make potential customers feel good? Or at least have a compelling reason to join you?

Too many advertising awards go to campaigns that might be creatively nice but will do absolutely nothing for the brand.

very touching add but took ages and lots of googling to find out what it was about,

Coming from a creative background it shames me to see beautiful storytelling with a weak connection to a brand at the end. You see time and time again great little snippets of brilliance in amongst someone screaming discounts at you. If you can tie an emotion to a brand and not feel the disconnect then it’s a great ad. Look to Lotto NZ for great ads. They have an amazing product to promote and everyone can relate to their “what if” line.

Lovely creative, strategy sucks.

Loved this add. But when i saw it was for a bank i felt conned that i gave emotional energy into a bank add.

The add agency did a good job. But I am annoyed it was a bank add.

Stop conning people into false belief that anyone should ever have any positive feelings about bloody banks.

Brilliant strategy – based on the insight (brainstormed in a marketing standup) that the one thing that all westpac customers have in common is death (except for crap service, but let’s park that). Westpac will own ‘death’ as an overarching brand theme. Brilliant.

A bank is NEVER there when you lose someone. I lost my dad and don’t remember the bank being there for our family. I don’t like the way they have crucified The seekers “Another You” either.

When I first saw the ad I thought it was about immigration, newly arrived man becoming part of his community, showing his selflessness and building a loving family to the point ant the saddest part of any relationship the community show the bereaved wife how her husband meant to them all. Then Westpac pops up and I think ” what did a bank have to do with any of that?” Cheap ploy by Westpac to play on human emotion.

Absolutely disgusting…with all the failures that were highlighted by the Australian Banking Commission the sheer ego of the bank to advertise is such a manner is absolutely disgusting.

“The revelation comes after Westpac admitted to falsely witnessing and pre-filling a form of acknowledgement, before allowing an elderly pensioner to become guarantor for her daughter’s loan, and then making a claim on the home after the daughter’s business failed.”

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/may/22/banking-royal-commission-westpac-executive-admits-flaws-in-loan-process

Can we please agree the abbreviation for ‘advertisement’ is ‘ad’ and not ‘add’?

This shouldn’t be called ad of the month. Ads exist for one reason only, and that is to function as advertising. And advertising needs to be measured to see whether it is good. Call it ‘Ad Creative of the Month’ and then this will have more credibility. Thoughts?

I loved the sentiment and storytelling, but when I realised it was from a bank – I thought it was a bit parasitic – the bank trying to get its hands on handling her estate and $$$ with the pretence of caring and supporting!

Funny because Mark has been working with the Westpac brand teams for the last 12 months

Very good made me cry

i’m just glad that cute girl Darcie Irwin-Simpson was in the ad her look is timeless with stunning eyes