HSBC wants to be your friend.

HSBC has recently launched a campaign in New York. And I am not sure if it is global, or has reached other parts of the nation, but it seems to be a huge rebranding campaign. I remember them filming "soap box" in madison square park in the middle of july, asking everyone to choose a topic and state what they think about it.

an example would be bottle water. is it good? bad? apathetic? the individual could just rant or throw accolades depending on their views.

the tagline for the campaign is something along the lines of how they can't continue until they understand everyone. different values make us all different. my words are not as fine tuned as theirs, and i am having a hard time finding the actual ad for them.

side note, it seems in all the google searches i am finding different versions, so i think we were being tested. i could be wrong.

moving on, anyway. HSBC basically took the entire platform of advertising, and created a campaign using our very foundation! we try to understand people. and we interview people and try to find a consensus about them. we also try to figure out how they view things differently and then we create ads around them. but we don't expressly state that in ads. HSBC basically did that. like, could you imagine that board meeting?

"we need to understand our consumers. who are they? what do they think?"
"what a great campaign idea. we need to understand our consumers. use that. let's go."

it's like they went halfway, stopped and ran with it.

and it's annoying. i wish they could have come around and done something different. especially since they are taking these attributes that are not associated with banking and giving them this personality.

this is one example of the ad:

i understand a bank is trying to humanize themselves into a more friendly bank. but i think they should have just focused on banking. and worries about the future. not the bottle water or a shaved head.

what are your thoughts? am i wrong in this whole thing?

ps, this isn't against their banking or anything like that. just the advertising.

the start of something new

i am currently in my parents house in texas. the house that i called home for a small part of my childhood/adulthood. i say small because we upgraded into our new (which is now current) house during my freshman year of college.

while i would visit in college, it was home. my stuff was still here. i left my crap around without a care. i treated it as my own. it wasn't a vacation coming home, but just a normal visit. i think living in a college town that is 2.5 hours away didn't really cause a problem in what was home and "home". both norman and dallas were home.

living in new york though, i purchased my first plane ticket, with my own money, to come home for a visit. and not just to visit my parents, but to visit college friends who i have not seen in over a year. a real vacation.

so i find it odd, but also mildly exciting, to be part of this journey where i am growing up. and being in a place where a vacation is going to dallas. and not just for a holiday. sure, i have my room. but, it's not my room. i don't have these exciting memories anymore in that room. they are all in my bedroom in new york city.

and i find myself being a little more careful with the house. i see myself more as a guest. maybe because i don't breathe in the house anymore. or come home at 4 in the morning. but i do see how far i've grown. and how much more i will grow.