Banks take themselves very seriously.  The branding guidelines are as thick as a brick – and as inflexible.  The emphasis is on coming across as trustworthy, friendly, reliable, caring, customer-focused, ethical and totally politically correct…even if that makes them appear indistinguishable from every other bank out there.  OK, they have different corporate colours (Lloyds green, HSBC red, Natwest blue & red, RBS blue) but we’re actually talking 50 shades of grey.

Atom Bank is a challenger bank.  So they have to be seen to challenge what the establishment is doing.  Logically it’s the only way they can go.  But it’s nice to see they’ve actually had the courage to go through with this strategy and create something ballsy.

One could quibble and say they’ve been unimaginative in simply hiring popular cartoonists Modern Toss to take the **** out of traditional banks.  But the results make me laugh – and I don’t think I’ll be the only one.

I’m not sure Atom Bank really is more honest/transparent/accommodating but these ads make it easier for me to believe this might be the case.  And they’ve made me smile.  Not many ads these days do that for me.  Especially not in the financial services arena.