Scottrade

At the beginning of this commercial (via agency Gearon Hoffman), we’re welcomed to Scottrade, “where you get the knowledge and resources to become a more confident investor.” There’s something a bit jarring about the word “confident” here. There were plenty of confident investors a little more than two years ago, many of whom had access to “knowledge and resources.” And many lost their shirts as the markets collapsed in the ensuing months. Thus, I’m not sure the intro (spoken by Scottrade’s suit-and-tie clad CEO, which also seems like an odd choice at a time when people take a jaundiced view of stock-market professionals) sets the best tone for bringing us into a folksy fictional town where the locals chatter confidently about investing and markets.