A little boy in a pink dress; an affectionate threesome; a gay couple with a child;a drag queen—these are some of the images the Dutch bank ING has been using to promote its payroll checking accounts.
Under the theme “Quedate con quien te quiera libre,” in English, “stick with those who want you to be free,” the campaign has been running on Spanish television, streaming services, and social media platforms since December 2021.
“There is nothing more beautiful than loving people just the way they are: free,” is the agency’s slogan to explain the reasoning behind the commercial on its website.
That’s why in this ING spot we see different scenes in which you can see how the protagonists love and respect each other, each expressing their freedom, individuality, and way of being.
“Exactly what the PAYROLL Account does with its clients, wanting them free,” the explanation concludes.
The advertising trade ezine IPMark interpreted the commercial this way:
The main spot develops this idea through a series of portraits … we see how some parents walk down the street proud of their son dressed as a fairy godmother; or how a tough-looking older man and his more conservative and sweet wife love each other; also the freedom and perfect rapport that a polyamorous trio transmits … among other protagonists.
A meme on the ING Facebook page shows two men kissing with the text: “Your diversity is our pride.”
ING promotes itself as the “banco no banco,” in English, the ‘not-a-bank bank,’ proclaiming to have broken banking conventions.
Other advertisements follow this theme. Another commercial for its payroll accounts, also the work of advertising agency Sra. Rushmore, tells the apparently true story of an elderly woman who asked her son to take her to a nudist beach because, apart from her son’s father, she had never looked at naked bodies. It wasn’t allowed.
“We already live too conditioned,” the advertisement concludes, as the woman sits at the beach, having done what ‘wasn’t allowed.’
“This campaign is based on the true story of a woman who decided to free herself from conditions,” Sra. Rushmore explains on its website.
The agency is a premier advertising firm that has worked with major Spanish and international brands, as well as won 150 awards, including a third place at the Cannes International Film Festival.
Sra. Rushmore has never eschewed polemic themes. A commercial for the professional soccer club Atletico de Madrid played with one of Spain’s most sensitive social issues—the Spanish Civil War in the twentieth century.
In 2011, it opened a ‘social observatory,’ the ‘Balcony of Señora Rushmore,’ to better understand social and consumer trends, according to the website marketingdirecto.com. The three-pronged project included regular discussion groups with everyday people, analyses of “what is spoken, viewed and searched on the Internet, to help identify the hottest social issues on the web,” and consultations with “professionals from different areas, opinion leaders, social and information science experts, artists, who will provide an additional point of view.”
ING did not respond to The European Conservative’s request for comment.
