Marketplace

Yep. That's a strange one alright. Perhaps the stresses of the current banking environment are getting to them. :)

It's pretty clear to me that the advertisement's narrative is about the fact that one of the loggers and one of the protesters are a couple, and despite the fact that they're on opposite sides of the issue, they're still a couple, and still love one another.

To me, HSBC's point is pretty clear - that the bank serves all of its customers better by seeking to understand each of them as individuals, and what they want, and then applying those lessons universally. The alternative that they put forth is effectively becoming involved in their customer's disputes, which requires engaging with issues in such a way as to justify being on one side or the other.

This isn't a "green-issue" spot. You could have subbed any two adversarial groups.

Question, though - doesn't the equation of Tolerance = Lack of values contribute to polarization and a general attitude of "if you aren't with us, you're against us?

The focus expands to any scale beyond the couple. The portrayal is about a couple, a family, a business/customer relationship, a town, or the big world.
It is uncomfortable when commercials grab my emotions - as this one did. I'm used to being able to standoff and meta-process the commercial on all levels. It makes me wonder what else is slipping through?

LOL, am I the only one who gets it? The tree-huggers are the small investors, the evil loggers are the banks. The small investors are pissed off now, but the banks don't hold a grudge and in the end, the small investors will hug the formerly-evil banks again, happy ending for all.

I think Aaron's interpretation is correct. But I'd like to add something that most discussions of "tolerance" ignore. Tolerance implies a degree of disagreement - if the views of two people are in complete harmony, what would there be to be "tolerant" of? In a democracy, tolerance allows us to have divergent opinions, but maintain our rights to have them without having to quarrel about them. However, to be "politically correct" in the current cultural climate means to "embrace" divergent views and to accept them, without acknowledging the very real differences in the opinions of people.

The answer to Aaron's query: "Question, though - doesn't the equation of Tolerance = Lack of values contribute to polarization and a general attitude of "if you aren't with us, you're against us?" is YES. I believe this has to be overcome before our society gets out of the stagnant pool we are in and moves forward.

What this has to do with HSBC I have no idea. My personal experience with banks in general is that they are here to make a buck - as someone else pointed out - off of the one's who really need it, and will most likely be the ones unable to afford to pay it back. I don't know why that would make them "undeserving"...

And I cringe when I think of the huge interest rates - especially from other credit vendors - that are now allowable. I had an unforeseen emergency once and had to go to a "payday lender" and promise to pay 135% interest, yes you read that right, if the loan wasn't paid off by the next payday. I paid it off in time, but what if I hadn't?

I'm old enough to remember when this was called "loan sharking" and was practiced by a very famous crime family... how did it ever become legal?

Nice - I think you're right that it's about you mirroring your views in what you see. I saw this as siding with the working man who supports irresponsible greens. At the end of the day, the working man makes the system work. Seems like they are truly a bank for all seasons.

HSBC, you gotta sin to get saved.

Fascinating. Thanks to Slate and thanks to you guys, I think the ad is doing a good thing. People are talking about it, and we're asking about the advertisers' intentions, and we're wondering about how to reconcile, and those are good questions and good thoughts.

I've long thought that this is the position that corporations should take. Corporations should be sensitive to all of their stakeholders, who are almost always a politically diverse group. I don't like when a corporation uses its power and influence to push its owners' or management's political views. It doesn't matter whether they are liberal or conservative. HBSC is saying that everyone is welcome, and doing business with them does not entail endorsing any set of political views.

That said, this is a separate issue from a corporation's own behavior. While corporations should remain neutral on environmental laws (the coercive part of environmentalism) that does not mean that they should not try to be as environmentally sensitive as feasible with their own corporate activities.

And for those politically correct types, when I call environmental laws "coercive," that does not mean that I oppose them.

Wow, this was a tough one.

They are displaying an incredibly complex issue that doesn't have clear winners and to some extent you could argue that all of us lose something in the bargain. Balancing issues and making choices isn't easy, and I would argue that the piece's neutrality echoes the bank's viewpoint that it is not their business to take sides, especially when the 'right' choice isn't clear, and their customers are on all sides. I can value their remaining neutral where it isn't clear which position to take.

While it certainly is a moving piece of micro-documentary on a complex issue, is it greenwash?

They end the piece with:
We recognize customers value things differently.
So what we learn from one customer helps us better serve another.

I can see truth and value in their first statement. What does concern me is that while I believe the innate potential of truth in the second, they haven't shown it. How is this issue helping them better serve their customers? Or said another way, how are they changing their services because of it, and their customers' involvement, beliefs and interactions with it? At first I was going to argue for them not to simply be taking advantage of its emotional pull, they either had to prove their case or at a minimum be doing a public good. Now, I have a different take:

In the opening scene, many of us could take sides with whomever we more closely identified with, but by the end we see that, _we_, not just the couple, can come and work together. The real value was in their raising difficult issues for us to wrestle with showing they're not simply paint black and white. All of the participants in the video are valued and welcome at HSBC. Better understanding yields better appreciation, and they're arguing better service.

Is it greenwash? No. While I still might argue they didn't prove point 2, they didn't need to.

Lyrics (complete):

"Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie"

That means no
Where I come from
I am cold
Out waiting for the day to come
I chew my lips
And I scratch my nose
Feels so good to be a rose

Oh don't, don't you life me up
Like I'm that shy
No no no no no
Just five it up
There are bats all dissolving in a row
Into the wishy-washy dark that can't let go
I cannot let go
So I thank the Lord
And I thank his sword
'Tho it be mincing up the morning, slightly bored

Oh, oh morning without warning like a hole
And I watch you go

There are some mornings when the sky looks like a road
There are some dragons who were built to have and hold
And some machines are dropped from great heights lovingly
And some great bellies ache with many bumblebees
And they sting so terribly

I do as I please
Now I'm on my knees
Your skin is something that I stir into my tea
And I am watching you
And you are starry, starry, starry
And I'm tumbling down
And I check a frown
It's why I love this town
Well, just look around
Just see me serenaded hourly !
And celebrated sourly :
Dedicated dourly
Waltzing with the open sea
Clam, crap, cockle, cowrie
Oh will you just look at me

I'm surprised that this ad seemed to miss with so many viewers. The bank connection to the plot is revealed near the end, when Dad bails his daughter out of jail. He's a humble logger, in a town that clearly favors its loggers and their jobs over its hippie tree-hugging squatters. But at the end of the day, when the logger needed some serious money to bail his own hippie daughter out of jail, HSBC came through for him....and thus helped him come through for her. Larger message: whatever larger intractable issues are roiling around us, HSBC will be there for YOU when you really need us.

I find it interesting that this point was lost on so many. Perhaps most law-abiding readers and listeners just couldn't relate to the 'hippie' daughter's passion or the logger's financial emergency.

The ferocity on both sides of the struggle suggests to this viewer that the bank wasn't trying to take a green position at all, but rather trying to claim neutral ground above all that complicated ugliness. Or underneath it, perhaps, closer to the ground, however crazy it gets up there above our day-to-day lives. In its second and final subtitled message as dad and daughter ride off into the sunset, the ad suggests to us all that we might find ourselves in that logger's shoes someday...and HSBC will help us too.

Quite a powerful ad.

Jeff (Nov 9) makes a good point. That message is certainly in the ad. But this ad works on many other levels too.

For example, on a political level, the ad provides the corporation and the viewers with the old alibi -- “Who's to say?” -- and places the corporation on seemingly-neutral ground.

The ad also invites viewers to join the corporation on that neutral ground. Thus even in this highly politicized, divisive time, it is okay to embrace all sides, or take no side. It is okay to be apathetic, or complacent. And naturally, HSBC would prefer that viewers embrace such a stance ...or non-stance.

Having said all this, the ad still seeks to appeal to young political activists on the left and their less-active liberal allies. If such a person does not watch it, and listen to it carefully, such individuals might very well be swayed to sign up for an HSBC card in the future. Indeed, the imagery itself may put HSBC in positive light for such people, even if later, they don't recall any details from the ad.

And these are precisely the people HSBC wants to get -- in addition to working-class folks laboring in economically precarious industries like logging. All these people are quite likely to have marginal credit ratings.

And, if you know about HSBC -- especially its past trouble w/ predatory lending practices -- then you know that HSBC wants these people to get HSBC credit cards.

In addition to charging high interest rates, HSBC does its very best to maximize the number and amount of overlimit fees & late fees charged to its customers.

For example, HSBC might charge a significant annual membership fee, but it will charge that fee on a date & time which ensures the fee *never* appears on the list of recent transactions -- making it more likely that a customer will go over the limit. (This method & others are described in the many complaints logged against HSBC banks on the BBB website & the websites of similar services.)

Finally, thanks to the recent bankruptcy "reform", HSBC can be quite certain that it will always get its money in the end ...or destroy its customers. Or both.

So regardless of your politics, or your economic status, HSBC welcomes you!

Steve

Man that ad is twisted!

Maybe this is cynical, but the purpose of advertising is to make you remember the name of the company. there really is no 'message' in 99% of advertising, other than 'remember our name'.

How? making a controversial or 'bizarre' ad is just another strategy, just like having a smiling baby, or a jingle, or a slogan. Or two people hugging (which is what this ad ends with)

Controversial ads get people talking about them, posting them on sites like this, and discussing them, and they all want to know what 'parent company' was 'intending'... parent company was intending you to remember their name and their logo!! And then to go spread the word! That's what advertising is!! And congratulations, you fell for it!

There is no 'message', other than 'HSBC'.

The only 'conflict' is how to be controversial without being disgusting or offensive. That's why they have the hug at the end, and there is no blood. I bet they had ad people and PR people arguing for days on end about whether or not to show the dog growling.

Here is their conversation before shooting.

"Let's do a controversial ad, drum up word of mouth."

"What's controversial?"

"Politics."

"OK, so.. what... a protest?"

"Nice... but ... could be too polarizing..."

"How about civil rights?"

"Are you crazy? Too racial"

"Anti-war?"

"Alienate half the country? No..."

"OK.. logging?"

'Logging... I like it... it'll be in Oregon, everyone will be white..."

"We can drag old white people out of a Norman Rockwell painting... maybe a few babies..."

"Yes yes... and then we can have hugs and kisses at the end..."

"I'm on it. Storyboard by noon."

"Good work, Jensen!"