Backlash against Revolut's Advert

I’m not sure anyone is or has claimed to be ‘offended’ over the ad, but it is certainly insulting.

I think most of the controversy started with this tweet

1 Like

Which is basically: (1) it’s insulting (2) & (3) implies invasive use of data, (4) bad advert (tells you nothing about Revolut as a service), (5) copies an existing ad. Nothing there that could be deemed as taking offence.

1 Like

Ahem :nerd_face:

From McGraw-Hill’s Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs:

take offense (at someone or something)

  • to be insulted by someone or something
2 Likes

her original blog post about it is here:


I just think its an interesting discussion topic as with an ever changing advertising landscape what lessons can be learnt from this. Especially with young companies a customers goodwill and good faith and reputation can be eroded over night

They must be rubbing their hands at all this free publicity. Millions of people will be hearing about them for the first time.

I’ve seen them refer to themselves as the Amazon of banking but I have a feeling they are actually the Ryanair of fintech.

They are right near the top of the BBC news homepage right now and the article slamming them ends with “The BBC has approached Revolut for a comment on the latest developments, but no-one was available to respond.”

Cringe.

Probably having an emergency PR meeting trying to work out whether they should continue towing the “get bent” line or hold their hands up and apologise for everything that was wrong about their campaign. :thinking:

2 Likes

To me it reads: “To the 12,750 who ordered a single takeaway on Valentine’s Day, how about we share this information with our adtech partners so they can offer you products and services to make you feel better”

:man_shrugging: I think this has blown way out of proportion, it is yes tasteless for sure, but I think people are too easily offended these days…

2 Likes

I think the bigger concern here is not owning the mistake. Going we messed up with this advert and will get it immediately removed and in the meantime what adverts would you prefer to see.
When the response was it was an old advert that was due to come down anyway that is not the point…

1 Like

Saying we’re sorry we got this wrong, and then alleged internal slack posts being leaked, calling people who complained snowflakes, isn’t the best look

4 Likes

Yeah exactly… I think thats the bigger issue.
You’re insulting customers… just accept the other persons point of view and chalk it down to a learning experience and then engage with the blogger to try and make some more valentine’s adverts all about communicating or something.

I was single last Valentines Day and I’m not bothered about the advert.

At least its highlighting the plight of singles in 2019, well 2018, Britain.

Chad is an obviously distasteful person. I would never condone leaking but what people say in a private conversation is really telling of ones personality. To be the Head of Marketing for a company with his attitude obviously speaks volumes of Revolut’s internal culture.

6 Likes

Here’s some other thoughts from a little post I made, may be of some resource:

https://community.monzo.com/t/revolut-ad-vs-monzo-email-thoughts/59436?u=eking95

1 Like

Its so… I don’t know what the word is… Its so unprofessional. The fact you’re talking about brand awareness as the positive?! They’ve completely missing the point of the comments/criticism

2 Likes

Companies making jokes at their customers’ expense are playing with fire. These companies depend on their customers’ loyalty.

2 Likes

I think especially young challenger banks.
On another note this community forum is trending top of google for the search “Backlash against Revolut”. So its clearly working wonders for their brand :rofl:

1 Like

I think people are confusing brand awareness with brand image here… this ad has done wonders for Revolut’s brand awareness. Far more people are aware of them and have heard of the brand, and are talking about their brand, than before this ad was spotted.

Brand image, on the other hand, isn’t doing so great due to the ad itself (to a lesser degree) and then the leaked slack messages after that.

2 Likes

That’s a very good point, I forgot to differentiate between the two :slight_smile:

1 Like

I don’t fly Ryanair out of principle despite them being cheaper pretty much always. Guess Revolut is not for me then :wink:

Chasing the same brand image as Ryanair doesn’t seem like the best strategy. For a finantial institution to be known for not caring about costumers and terrible business practises isn’t the best image to have, tough it’s pretty much an accurate description

1 Like