Red Tettemer does year's wackiest bank ads

Philadelphia ad shop Red Tettemer gets self-consciously goofy for Citadel Bank in a series of spots (five of them posted below) that introduce Lewis, a nerdy spokesman with bad hair who sits at a desk strewn with kitschy bric-a-brac and reads messages about rates and savings delivered by a pneumatic "truth tube." The mission, according to the agency, is to portray the bank as "straightforward and down to earth." Well, Citadel, after checking my own truth tube, I have to say that these ads—goofy and wink-wink surreal, with Lewis coming off like a low-rent Conan O'Brien—don't seem either straightforward or down to earth.