Back To Nature

Animals have long been used in advertising by companies seeking to associate or create a sense that their products and services are embodied with highly sought after traits, such as strength, quality, speed and class.

Tigers, horses, lions and cheetahs are to name but a few animals that are commonly used.

HSBC and Investec are two of the latest groups from a financial services perspective to use animals in a bid to promote their wares as unique, strong and reliable finance and investment groups.

HSBC is running a campaign involving a bear, while Investec, which has long used zebras in order to distinguish itself as a different beast in the market, has again enlisted the services of everyone’s favourite black and white striped animal.

For HSBC, bears are always going to be a winning choice because they have expressive faces, often stand on two feet and pluck the heart strings of many because they can act like humans.

Bears have long been used in advertising promoting anything from mineral water, airlines, drugs, vitamins, windows, cars, urban transport and printing paper.

While being bearish symbolises cautiousness and negativity in an investment sense, a bear itself represents strength or power.

Meanwhile, the zebra is a part of the horse family, equidae are the epitome of quality, class, perfection and arguably power.

A zebra is slightly different as it symbolises some of the qualities of a horse but has a more category defying quality to it.

This means redefining the status quo.

In the respective ads, both HSBC and Investec stress their respective expertise and unique approach to business and investment.

HSBC’s ad involves a fish being dragged across a dry and dusty area to attract the attentions of a bear – “a different approach for getting what you set out to achieve.”

While for Investec, viewers are shown a scene from a stable where they can hear what sounds like a wild horse – when in effect as the animal breaks free the footage shows that we were in fact incorrect as it turns out to be a zebra.

As clichéd as the ads appear, they seem to work, which suggests animals in bank ads are here to stay.