I don’t normally have a go at (or herald) particular adverts but Lloyds Bank has reached a whole new level of annoyance with their latest campaign that I had to publicly deride it.

This abysmal advert shows a young girl on her journey biking (why?) and how the black horses that have become a symbol for Lloyds Bank are supporting her on her way – an extended metaphor for the bank’s children’s accounts that support you with your money.

Although the premise of this advert is very emotive and impactful, the fact it bears such little resemblance to the truth makes it almost laughable. I’ve been a customer of Lloyds Bank for years and not once have they tried to support me (not that I’d want it!) nor built my confidence.

Lloyds’ slogan is ‘by your side’ and although it sounds lovely the truth is altogether less altruistic and more geared towards maximising the value each customer generates (they are a business after all!).

They do not want young customers to support them nor to improve their fiscal aptitude. They want to hook people in young and pray that their apathy keeps them as a loyal Lloyds customer for as long as possible so the bank can rake in the earnings.

Unlike their competitors, Lloyds don’t have any sizeable focus or campaign with regard to financial education (Barclays, Santander and NatWest do – to name a few). T

hey have the ‘Making Money Meaningful’ programme but as it’s buried near the bottom of their annual report shows the advert as even more futile as they seem to make minimal efforts behind the scenes to back it up.

As a business that made almost £7 billion in pre-tax profit last year should have the resource to come up with a cleverer marketing campaign and not drivel like this with no substance.

Do comment your thoughts below.

P.S: The background song is also insufferable!