Nationwide’s continuation of its “A good way to bank” campaign starring actor Dominic West has received eight complaints through the Advertising Standards Authority.
The second film, “SavingsWatch”, features the return of West as the selfish boss of “A. N. Y. Bank."
The brand’s first campaign by New Commercial Arts received 273 complaints, leading to the ASA investigating whether it “discredited” its competitors.
Sky reported that Santander had filed a formal complaint to the ASA.
Since Campaign reported on the ASA investigation, the ad has received a further seven complaints, bringing the total number to 280.
New Commercial Arts won the Nationwide account early last year and the agency created the bank’s biggest rebrand in 36 years in October. The rebrand included a new visual identity as well as a three-stage advertising campaign.
The latest 60-second film promotes Nationwide's SavingsWatch service, which keeps customers informed of changes to savings accounts and sometimes suggests accounts that might be better suited to their needs.
It opens with West in the middle of a meeting with marketing as he utters to himself: “This is so boring.”
He is interrupted by a colleague, played by comedian Suni Patel, leading to West promptly ending the call.
Patel informs West of the bank’s customer satisfaction results, which leave much to be desired, and West dismisses this feedback, telling his colleague that it’s the shareholders he needs to keep happy.
His colleague suggests they should be more like Nationwide, signposting the SavingsWatch service and showing West some social media comments from the bank’s customers.
West is unbothered by the comments, suggesting they are merely “keyboard warriors”. He notices one comment and says: “This person can’t even spell banker” to which Patel replies “It’s not banker."
Campaign UK has approached Nationwide and New Commercial Arts for comment.
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