ANZ bank has been pushing their latest advertising campaign, “We do how”, for quite some time now.

As is the norm for the banking sector, ANZ is still advertising the usual bank offerings. There’s nothing new on offer that you can’t get with any other bank. The campaign is fairly good as far as banking advertising goes, and like all banks, it’s backed by a mega budget.

The characters in the campaign, the Sharma family, are fairly likeable. We have Ravi; the “trying-too-hard-hero-dad”, Claire; the token mother, and Sameer and Tara; the prop-like children. The variations of the theme are clever in the series of ads they’ve made, which blend together nicely.

However, their singular pay-off line in the advert below makes me cringe: “See how ANZ could help you pay off your home loan faster”. As a homeowner, I’m really into the concept of paying off our mortgage as fast as possible. The idea of paying vast amounts of interest to tyrannical banks has no appeal to me and I want to be out of our black hole of debt as quickly as possible.

The depressing part of this commercial is that ANZ clearly shows that our characters have had a mortgage since January 2000, and now, 22 years later, they still owe $47,360. 22 Years in debt is already a very long time.

What’s far worse in this advertisement is that ANZ’s claim is frivolous and that’s because one word sticks out of their payoff line: “See how ANZ could help you pay off your home loan faster”. Yes, they could help you, but will they, and how? How can ANZ advertise such a vague, variable service in such a way? It’s all puffery. I can’t even say they’ve used some smoke and mirrors trickery here – they’ve just weaselled out of their service offering by claiming that they might be able to help.

If the Sharma family have been in debt for 22 years, how is ANZ making their mortgage go “out the door” any faster? And most importantly, what benefits are there for consumers to move from one faceless banking institution to another? If all they can offer are low mortgage rates then how long will it take for other banks to match them?

What would have happened if ANZ and their advertising agency, TBWA NZ, used a more persuasive word that drives action, like “will”? What if ANZ had instead said, “See how ANZ will help you pay off your home loan faster”? What would the response have been from consumers and would they switch to ANZ?

One word can make all the difference, especially in advertising.