This woman is following me.
Actually, I've been using the ATM machines at Santander Bank. They have branches all over the country (and world...based in Spain). What I find curious--from an advertising point of view--is the use of a blatant "sexy" sell for a financial services company. There are posters of this lady in every window with headlines like: "I'm super good (with businesses)," and "Come with me," and "Get to know me inside."
Now, having worked in marketing for 30 years or so, there is nothing inherently wrong with a sexy ad. For beer? You bet. Cars? Sure. But for a big, established bank? I don't get it.
Speaking of sexy, this is Carnaval time in Merida. And each night is a different parade. And while I have a strong dislike of crowds, I thought, "Rod, go down and take some photos of the parade. How often do you get to see Carnaval?" So I walked down to the main square. The streets are all blocked off for the parade. The city has taken advantage of a money-making opportunity and sells seating in reviewing stands along the parade route. So, on many streets downtown, you cannot cross from one block to the next without showing your parade entry ticket. Pain in the you-know-what.
The parade started about 8 p.m., much further up in the city. About 8:30, I walked down to see if it had arrived. Nope. Seemed like a good time to go to bed, being elderly and all. So I came back to the hotel. What luck! One of the local TV stations was broadcasting LIVE from the Carnaval parade. It can be summed up easily...lots of Las Vegas showgirl types with enormous headdresses up on floats. The headdresses were the largest piece of clothing the girls had on. And they were shaking their moneymakers like they were going out of style (they never go out of style). And....here is where the commercial comes in....They turned their backs to the camera to display the names of the sponsor. In this case, TEL-MEX, the privatized Mexican telephone system. With the logo plastered right across their booties.
Like I said, sex sells.
