The one with the squirrel that ‘parked his bike outside’ but then later reveals he doesn’t have a bike and just wanted to get rid of the interviewer by lying gives me the impression that bankwest managers cannot be trusted.

Singing sunflowers? Come on, are we really still in the 90′s? It’ll be a squirrel in a ‘HyperGlobal’ thermal colour changing teeshirt next..

The Happy Bank campaign was developed at Host, Sydney by The Glue Society, with production done through Radical Media, Sydney.

Photography was provided by Derek Henderson, Map Wilk, Network.

Anthony Freedman, managing director at Host, explained:

“The idea is quite simple. A bank that has the ambition to make banking a positive experience would conduct research to learn what makes people happy. The twist is that this research happens to be with things universally recognised as bringing happiness like the Sun, a flower, a basket of kittens and so on –“ happiness experts if you like.”

Just checked these Natwest ones out. I’ve seen these on tv and haven’t look at them as a marketer, only a disinterested punter. So up until now I thought they were a bit boring and I’ve never been bothered listening. So by the time it got to the point I’d lost interest. And I thought they looked a bit cheap.

But now that I’m analysing them as a marketer, I quite like them. They’re clever, they have a strong point of difference, the campaign has cohesion.

What does that say about our/my ability to subjectively assess ads?!

Also, as pathetic as it sounds, I’m a westpac brand loyalist through and through – it’s a good bank that I’ve been with all my life and don’t ever expect to change. So all bank advertising is a bit like car ads – they only become relevant when you need to buy a new car.

And there’s probably lots of dissatisfied bankees out there.