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HSBC’s heavy lifting

HSBC has been in the news for all the wrong reasons in recent years, with the LIBOR scandal, fines for its role in assisting tax evasionsupposed media manipulation in the Telegraph and a recent proposal to lay off up to 50,000 staff around the world. It’s still making truckloads of cash, of course (although profit was down 17 percent to a mere $18.7bn in 2014) and it’s also making good ads, with a beauty from Grey London that, like Mad Men, uses the humble elevator as a storytelling device and plays up the emotional side of owning a business.

Following the owner of Cadours Industries, who is portrayed by actor Stephane Coulon, over 40 years, the ad uses the elevator to mark the passing of time and the achieving of goals. And while there’s no dialogue, you don’t really need it as it’s easy enough to get the gist of what’s happening. And as the line deftly states at the end, “it’s never just business”, something a lot of owners in New Zealand would agree with. We wait patiently for the trolls to point out that it’s never just business for HSBC, it’s also occasionally about illegal activities—and, just as NZ Post is experiencing, that it’s a bad time to launch an ad like with when so many job losses are on the table. 

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