HSBC brand undone by minds closed to tax evasion

A picture of a skyscraper-heeled stiletto with the word “pleasure” typed over it, next to an image of a red chili pepper branded with the word “pain”. The same two pictures again, only this time the chili is “pleasure” and the shoe is “pain”.

Then the explainer: “Open minds are welcome here”.

If you flew through Heathrow or another large airport some time in the noughties, the chances are that you will recognise this as one iteration of a long-running advertising campaign for Britain's biggest bank, HSBC.

And HSBC you will know from headlines such as: “HSBC under fire over revelations”, “HSBC: Catalogue of malpractice laid bare”, and “HSBC helped clients dodge millions in tax”.

It turns out not everybody has an open mind when it comes to tax evasion. So it’s been more of a painful than a pleasurable week for the bank, and vice-versa for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which has done so much for HSBC’s brand awareness.

“In the future, even the smallest business will be multinational,” HSBC declared in its “in the future” campaign, and indeed, cross-border co-operation works wonders for journalism as well.

The consortium co-ordinated coverage of leaked files from the Geneva-based HSBC Private Bank with 45 news outlets after obtaining them via French title Le Monde.

Local bank

For years HSBC has marketed itself as a kind of sturdy, gentlemanly facilitator of ambition – so reliable it even avoided the need to tap British taxpayers for help during the financial crisis. Until 2011 it used the quaint slogan “The world’s local bank”. But the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation – HSBC – is 150 years old and as imperial as it is possible to be.

Its hexagonal logo, depicting either a red hourglass or a white bow-tie, depending on which way you squint, is inspired by the conqueror's accessory of choice: a flag. In London, the bank sponsors the Cutty Sark, a Victorian merchant ship that was known for trading profitably with Asia in its day and is now a museum.

HSBC’s perfect customer is a faceless corporate, but it also appeals for the business of the internationally minded executive or business owner, the briefcase carriers who consume its posters as they march along the travelator fast lane.

Airports, especially those terminals that double as soulless outposts for luxury goods retailers, are the ideal place for a globally embedded bank to promote itself to high-net-worth individuals, including those too rich to pay tax.

Really, the most startling thing about the “Your Point of View” campaign is that its dichotomies – work, play, heaven, hell, trendy, traditional, leader, follower – were so eye-catching. Most advertising for investment, commercial and private banks is bland and innocuous in true nothing-to-see-here style.

More recently, HSBC’s advertising has turned cloying. In one TV ad, the star was a little girl selling lemonade in multiple currencies on her front lawn. A sequel depicted her growing up to be an international lemonade entrepreneur. Everything was sunny and successful on its own merits.

As a customer, the girl with the lemonade stand is far away from, say, the arms dealers who channelled mortar bombs to child soldiers in Africa – another source of HSBC business, according to the leaked documents. Naturally, the record $1.9 billion fine the bank paid in the US to settle allegations it facilitated money-laundering by drug traffickers did not prove to be marketing gold either.

Now the bank talks about the whole business of tax evasion by its clients as if it’s an anomaly, a question of standards not having been met on this occasion.

Charity supporter

Like all powerful companies, HSBC is fluent in the marketing sub-language of corporate social responsibility. A tweet from its press office boasts about it being the largest corporate supporter of the Prince’s Trust, a royal charity that helps young people.

“That’s lovely of you,” a Twitter user replies after the story breaks. “Any chance you can help society more by not helping people avoid paying tax?”

Ah, but different people have “Different Values”, as another old HSBC campaign once illustrated. For “responsibility”, it showed side-by-side images of a recycling bin, a goldfish in a bowl and a footballer stepping up to take a penalty kick.

To be fair, a photograph of a millionaire filling in a tax return wouldn’t have had quite the same visual impact.