Royal Mail is knocked its use of shock tactics on the head for the launch of a new ad campaign designed to remind consumers to ensure they do not make themselves vulnerable to identity theft when moving house.
The 30-second ad for the postal giant’s redirection service launches this week, devised by M&C Saatchi with media through Arena.
It features a middle-aged couple who come over all nostalgic as they pick over their long-forgotten belongings and pack them away to move out of their home.
The ad then switches to a shot of the inside of their front door once they have left as the letterbox rattles open once more and a huge pile of letters builds up. Text states: “Before you decide what you take. Think about what you might be leaving behind. Redirect your mail to prevent identity theft.”
It is a far cry from a campaign launched in 2017, also by M&C Saatchi, designed to raise awareness of the firm’s ID Fraud Centre which featured a gang of baseball bat-wielding men in balaclavas carrying out a harrowing bank raid.
The video ad ran on Twitter and ITV Player and opened with a shot of an every day scene in a bank. However, suddenly a gang of masked men rushed in, shouting: “This is a robbery”.
It then showed a female member of staff being grabbed repeatedly by the shoulder and the wrist and asked her full name and date of birth and other customers asked similar questions about their personal ID, passwords and log-in details.
The Advertising Standards Authority banned the ads after ruling it was likely to cause fear and distress without justifiable reason, particularly for those who had been victims of violence.
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