SAN FRANCISCO - Not so long ago, customers at Wells Fargo bank in San Francisco just had to cope with mechanical faults and quirky operating hours when trying to extract cash from their dispensing machines.
Now they also have to put up with film trailers and advertisements.
Starting this week, Wells Fargo
is operating three high-tech machines in and around the city that, as well as passing out money, sing the praises of Ridley Scott's Roman epic Gladiator, starring New Zealander Russell Crowe.
"The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an empire," reads the screen on Montgomery St. What was that cheque account balance again?
Wells Fargo says 800 of its bank machines will be wired for commercials and news headlines by the end of the year.
Eventually the adverts will be tailored to the buying habits of the consumer trying to get cash.
This may be the banking wave of the future, but the first customers to undergo the experience were less than enthusiastic. "I just want to get my money," complained one.
Yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle inveighed the notion that "even before you extract your cash, the machine tells you how to spend it."
"That's a lot of gall, even for avaricious bankers, who should junk the commercials in favour of machines that work, that spit out bills and transaction records - even on weekends - with no charge for retrieving our own money."
Wells Fargo retorted that marketing tests showed their customers found the idea cool. The Gladiator commercial has spear fights, sword fights, axe fights and tiger fights, plus a passionate kiss. Entertaining, perhaps - as long as nobody is waiting for cash behind you.
- INDEPENDENT
