From top: Bank of Ireland ad and Newstalk’s George Hook
Readers may recall how Bank of Ireland tweeted an ad about how a woman, called Orla, and her boyfriend moved back home with their parents in order to save for a mortgage deposit.
The ad was subsequently withdrawn.
Further to this…
This afternoon.
On Newstalk’s High Noon show, George Hook said:
“What do you think about this famous Bank of Ireland ad. I just heard on the news there…the Bank of Ireland are apologising, apologising for what?
“Have you been living on Mars or something for the last 24 hours, you may not have heard. Bank of Ireland put out an ad featuring a real-life person who’s going to go back and live with the parents while she saved for a deposit for a house.
“And they’re all outraged. All that Twitterati are outraged. Outraged about what?
“Like it’s been difficult to buy a house forever. It was difficult for my generation, for my children’s generation, it was difficult for everybody. Of course, I mean, of course people move back and live with the parents in an effort to save money.
“On this morning’s [Irish] Independent there’s a woman who’s actually not eating because she’s saving for a deposit because she’s going to lose the place she’s renting at the moment and the rental deposit in the next place is going to be a lot of money and she literally is not eating to put the amount of money together.
“It is a fact of life that people who have to raise a deposit or pay a mortgage or pay rent make special effort but this whinging generation who has no other way talk about, except on Twitter, this whinging generation cannot face the stress of a university examination without stroking a dog to keep him calm.
“What are ya going on about? How are you ever going to survive in a world which is full of challenges which every day you face a challenge in your home life, in your social life, in your work life, in your sporting life.
“Every day, life is a challenge. And if you think you’re going to be mollycoddled for the rest of your life, then you have another thing coming. And the Bank of Ireland, the bank that I banked with since I had my first bank account in 1961, why oh why did it cave in to this sort of claptrap?
“Either the story was valid or it’s not valid. I mean there was an Irish woman who was head of the British marketing board and she said only 50% of advertising works, the trick is which 50%. So, of course, you do some advertising, it’s not great; sometimes it’s super.
“So when the fella at Avis came up with the idea ‘Avis tried harder‘, because they were number two to Hertz and, it’s an absolutely brilliant piece of advertising which I think exists to this day.
“We were all buying pints of stout because somebody said ‘Guinness is good for you’. Ok, the Bank of Ireland fella didn’t get it quite right but all you whingers just shut up, will ya? And stop, not just annoying me, because it’s easy to annoy grumpy old George, but annoying everybody, everybody who actually works for a living, saves for a house and goes through all the kinds of things that adults have to do.
“All us adults are teed off with you kids who are aged between 20 and 40.”
Listen back here