A Nationwide television advert starring Dominic West has been banned following complaints and investigation.
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The advert claimed that the building society was not closing branches, and would continue to keep branches open. However, the Advertising Standard Authority (ASA) has found the advert to be “misleading” according to a report published on their website.
The advert, which stars The Crown star as a smug bank manager attempting to close down more branches, promoted Nationwide’s commitment to maintaining open branches until 2026, featuring the line: “Unlike the big banks, we’re not closing our branches.”
The ad has received 282 complaints, including from Santander, who challenged Nationwide’s claim that they weren’t closing their branches.
The ASA report found that while Nationwide had the smallest percentage of branch closures compared to other similar financial institutions, they had closed 20 per cent of their estate over a ten-year period, equating to 152 branches.
The ASA also found a lack of clarity surrounding the validity of the Branch Promise, which is only in place until 2026, after which Nationwide could start closing branches permanently. This has since been extended until “at least the start of 2028” according to a recent Instagram post by the building society.
The report issued by the ASA found that in the 18 months since Nationwide originally launched the Brand Promise in July 2022, the building society had permanently closed 20 branches. The report added: “Of those 20, 14 had been closed in the 12 months preceding the campaign, with two of them having been closed in 2023.”
They concluded that this could be significant to customers choosing to join Nationwide, and that by not being clear about branches that had recently closed, the ad was misleading.
The ASA found the television ad to have breached BCAP (Broadcasting Committee of Advertising Practice) Code rules, including Misleading advertising, Substantiation and Qualification.
As such, the ASA has ruled that the ad should not appear again in its “current form” and have stated that they have “told Nationwide Building Society not to mislead in relation to the closure of their branches.”
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