Come on now, enough CBA bashing

 

Poor old Commonwealth Bank. They’re getting slammed left right and centre for their seemingly frivolous, self-indulgent ‘Determined to be Different’ series of tv commercials. At least they’re not recycling the same pretty young cashiers with Macleans smiles that banks have been using in ads for decades (thank you St George). Another vanilla bank ad is not what we need.

 

Ok, so Mad-Max koalas and a moth-eaten roo might be a little bit lame but for Pete’s sake at least they’re doing something different. And isn’t that the point? Perhaps the brand needs to be a little more prominent throughout the ads but they’re not bad. And love them or hate them, they’ve certainly generated a heap of publicity.

 

Kudos.

 

 

Woolies tries fresh idea

 

The recent ‘Fresh Market Update’ series of tv commercials positions Woolworths as the epitome of their tag line. Cue friendly retail worker telling us what’s fresh this week and giving each item a personality with lines about where it’s from and the farmers that delivered it. Very clever Woolies: ingratiate yourself into the only market you’ve not got a stranglehold on, the ‘I’ll pay a bit more because I’m buying it from the source’, ‘support the little guy’, ‘it tastes better because it’s in season’ organic-loving, cashed up, gourmand customer.

 

Only problem is, Woolworths is by nature a monolithic, market-dominating force whose brand personality doesn’t really gel with the target market they’re trying to charm. It will be interesting to see if this tack works or if these Fresh Market Updates fall by the wayside.

 

Having said that, I will be picking up some broccoli this week, as per the smiling actor’s recommendation.