CommBank ad highlights grassroots cricket grants
Commonwealth Bank of Australia has launched a cricket-focused ad timed to coincide with the first weekend of The Ashes.
The ad focuses on the bank’s support of community cricket.
CBA’s advertising is done by US-based creative agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.
A second ad released online focuses on the bank’s customer service.
And two more focus on on business banking:
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large. He returned to Mumbrella as Publisher in January 2025
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Bastards.
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More wank than bank methinks.
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Bank propaganda. Pure and simple.
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For years, agency creatives have been writing themselves trips.
“We open on a young man in his loft apartment. From the skyline, it’s clear we’re in a huge, impersonal city…” (it’s important not to be TOO obvious… you don’t specifically name the location; you merely script it so that it simply CANNOT be shot in Oz)
Now the boot’s on the other foot, and the Comm Bank client is writing themselves trips. To San Francisco. To meet with Goodbys. Who are doing the kind of work that any number of Sydney-based agencies could do with one hand tied behind their back (which they would undoubtedly have, working on a bank).
At a company that rakes in sixty bazillion trillion dollars in profits every minute, you can get away with stuff like this.
For so long.
Until someone on the board, someone who played a bit of cricket in their time, maybe watches this ad and thinks to himself “I wonder why when the kid hit that cricket ball, it didn’t sound like a cricket bat hitting a Kookaburra, but rather like a baseball being struck by a Louisville Slugger?”
And then the questions begin.
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Where’s the grass roots ad about struggling mortgage holders vs bastard profits?
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They’re playing in whites so it must be a test match, right?
Ok, so then why are they playing at night with a white ball?
Small details, but they make for a jarring disconnect locally.
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Eek … you’re probably one of these picky guys that expect your bank statement to balance. I suppose if you were with NAB there would be no chance of that happening at the moment.
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We open on a household earning $50 000. A letterbox. A Letter. The bank is increasing their mortgage payments by an extra 0.2% to ensure increased profits. Now the tag and the logo:
“Determined to be the same as the other big three”.
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Eeek says: “They’re playing in whites so it must be a test match, right?
Ok, so then why are they playing at night with a white ball?”
Which suggests that the bit where he hits tha ball into space is realistic?
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Crap!
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I’d say the bit where he hits the ball into space is just exaggerated narrative. It’s a part of the dream sequence so that’s fair play.
Let’s say it was featuring rugby instead of cricket and they were throwing around a gridiron ball.
There’s nothing wrong suspending reality as long as the reality your suspending is real.
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I agree with Real Image, both Anons, Matthew, Hmmmm, Fat Paddler, Eek and Ron Jeremy.
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Diabolical ads… the only reason why I still use commonwealth bank is, like Jimmy Whales said, their services don’t suck –> http://bit.ly/hbUv75
They happen to run their stuff smoothly… as for home loans, U bank has got a purely online product coming out with minimal costs –
Point being there is so much focus on dramatising a benefit *blah blah blah* like every freaking ad – and not enough on actually making that benefit be way better for the consumer. Give them something they want to talk about and they’ll do the leg work for you… Vodafone Australia spends all that time and money on bus stop media saying ‘We listened’ but check out their facebook page – they get slogged with complaints. You want to talk to your customers? They are right there!
If it’s going to be dramatised and ‘out of this world’ I want to get goose bumps like the first time I experienced Sony Bravia – Balls.
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(Edited by Mumbrella for legal reasons).
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Has anyone seen more self-promotion by a marketing department than that of CBA?!! Or do they pay for space on Mumbrella?
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The ‘Determined to be different’ tagline just feels so insulting now – they are determined to increase interest rates more than the Federal Reserve Bank that’s for sure. The ads might well have work a few weeks ago, but now I just see insults and alternative messages in each one of them, is it the “championship on the line” or their “profit margins”? Are transactions being made in record time or is it record profits being made in record time. As a CBA customer these just feel like a slap in the face.
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