Now that Washington Mutual has been fully digested by Chase, Chase has blanketed the West Coast with billboards in order to introduce itself to us. Apparently I’m too dense to understand this one. As a cyclist, should I be flattered, or offended?
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Flattered, no? I love it that Chase wants to associate itself with cyclists. We are all those things that modern-day bankers are not: prudent, frugal, fit, modest. But I suppose some bankers of yesteryear were imprudent too, like the guy who founded Chase’s oldest forebear, the Bank of Manhattan–Aaron Burr.
May 13th, 2009 at 5:54 pmI think it means: invest with us and you’ll be able to afford to fix your flat.
May 13th, 2009 at 6:59 pmEric: That’s one possible take, but why is he carrying his bike? Are we supposed to think, as wordnerd said, that if your bike is broken, you’ll be lucky to bank with Chase, because then you’ll be able to afford the repairs? Or is the guy carrying his bike just supposed to emit a vague aura of vitality? If so, then I’m flattered.
My first interpretation, which I no longer think the most likely, is that the ad was basically saying, “If you bank with Chase, then you won’t be some loser who can’t afford a car and has to ride a bike everywhere and ends up carrying the bike around because it keeps getting flat tires.” That’s probably not the message they are trying to send, but we’ve seen ads with that message before. State Farm had an ad, which they had to pull because cyclists protested so much, about how a guy is humiliated by having to bike to work because he can’t afford high car insurance. Another ad a couple of years ago for some auto parts store showed a teenager biking along a country road and coming across an abandoned car. The teenager then spends all his savings getting the old car to work again, and ends up all happy that he doesn’t have to ride his bike around anymore. We’re supposed to cheer the fact that he has wasted all his money getting a mid-70′s gas guzzler to work again, instead of continuing to ride his bike and spending his money more prudently.
And the imprudent guy who Aaron Burr killed in Weehawken, of course, not only founded a bank himself, but also founded the New York Post. All in all, quite a legacy from those two!
May 13th, 2009 at 8:16 pm