POSB Bank aims to reach kids early with animated tales

DBS-owned POSB has released a series of animated tales that intend to help parents teach their kids basic concepts of financial literacy. The Secret Little Agency (TSLA) collaborated with illustrators 8eyedspud to create the tales, which are meant for consumption on smartphones.

The bank began posting and promoting the POSB Pocket Stories: Tales of Money and Sense last year. The third episode has just launched, and the agency says POSB will put forward "a slew of strategic and creative plays to address financial literacy across different age groups throughout 2022".

The newest tale, that of 'Caleb and the Candy Factory' appears below. You can also check out Alice, who learns the value of sharing in Wonderland, and Jill, who learns the virtue of spending and saving for a Magic Bean. 

The tales are suitable for kids from 4 to 12 years of age, according to TSLA. The tales are housed on a parent-centric page on POSB's site, and the agency says they are best experienced on Instagram.

"We developed fun and interactive IG stories incorporating elements of financial literacy for parents to share and read with their children," Jean Yeo, senior vice-president of marketing with POSB Consumer Banking Group, DBS Bank, said in a release. "Conversations about good money management should start early as this will have compounding impacts on children as they grow older."

Ad Nut is thrilled to see that some of the stories include a friendly and knowledgable squirrel called Smiley, whom the bank has also featured in a series of downloadable activities for kids. It's not quite enough to get POSB into Ad Nut's Advertising Hall of Fame, but it's nice to see—and smart, as the way squirrels save their nuts for hard times ahead is a natural match with financial-literacy lessons.

Ad Nut also applauds the objective of the work and likes the illustration style.

However, sorry, but Ad Nut finds the above knockoff of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, to be a bit well, off. In it, Caleb essentially starves himself by skimping on lunch in order to save money to buy a chocolate bar, in hopes of getting a golden ticket to tour the candy factory. And he faces no real consequences for this questionable choice, because his grandfather condones his decision, encourages him to keep at it, and gives him a snack to tide him over. Saving is all well as good, but encouraging someone to go hungry in order to save for what amounts to a lottery ticket? That's an odd lesson.

Ad Nut is a surprisingly literate woodland creature that for unknown reasons has an unhealthy obsession with advertising. Ad Nut gathers ads from all over Asia and the world for your viewing pleasure, because Ad Nut loves you. You can also check out Ad Nut's Advertising Hall of Fame, or read about Ad Nut's strange obsession with 'murderous beasts'.

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Editor's note: This article has been edited after its initial publication. We removed a paragraph where Ad Nut questioned whether the videos were suitable for an age range from 4 to 12 years, after the agency informed us that each video is meant for a particular, more narrow, age range (Alice is for 4- to 6-year-olds; Jill for 6- to 12-year-olds, and Caleb for 8- to 12-year-olds).