I can't remember what I was watching when the hidden-camera footage from one of Bartle Bogle Hegarty's new spots for Ally Bank, showing a boy and a truck, popped up. I do recall it jumped off the screen like a lightning bolt.
At first, I had no clue what it was for. But I wanted to stay with the commercial, puzzle it out and not let it go. Part of its stickiness comes from its hard-to-place look and feel. It's TV advertising that seems old and new at the same time, as if it took its cues from some lost spot of the 1960s. It's striking in its cleverness.
So, here's something novel and, perhaps, contradictory: big, vintage-feeling commercials (backed by a major prime-time schedule) for a new online bank. (Three ads are airing on TV and posted at youtube.com/ally.)
There's genius in the nostalgia. The hidden-camera setup, each of which stars kids (one boy starts to play with a toy that is cruelly yanked away), is a great way to metaphorically acknowledge the anger and frustration people feel towards "banks" -- and deflect it long enough to make a case for a bank without being booed off the stage. (Banks and bankers are now held in such contempt that advertisers seem noble by comparison.) Also, using kids suggests a mythic time before zombie banks, when the world was innocent and honest.
Some of the retro feel also comes from the fact that the children interact with a man in formal business attire. That never happens on Blue's Clues, where the host dresses (and sometimes acts) just like the 2-year-olds he's entertaining. Plus, shows like Candid Camera and House Party, which had a "Kids Say the Darndest Things" segment, were big in the '60s.
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