Illinoistocht

I took this photo of a humorous ad featuring a nordic skater in the window of a branch of one of Sweden’s major banks, Handlesbanken, on my recent trip.  (There are of course more elegant means to address the risk of thin ice--a buddy system, ice claws, and a floaty waterproof backpack come to mind--but the donut float elicited the intended chuckle from this viewer.)  The slogan, "nå dina mål utan att ta onödiga risker" means “reach your goals without taking unnecessary risks”.  What is interesting is that many bank slogans of the last few years have had bold statements about stretching and making it to some happy, promised land; however, few of these slogans also contained a qualifying clause like the one above that reminds the intended recipient that there is such a thing as downside risk, which is to be deftly avoided.  Yes, these are only marketing and advertising slogans, but it does speak volumes about the culture in general wherein downside risk was not fully considered by many parties, even marketing departments at banks.  By contrast, Sweden had had a notably bad banking crisis in the early 1990s and the cultural memory may explain Handlesbanken's slogans bringing the concept of downside risk into the equation. 

A few bank slogans:

A.I.G.  “the strength to be there”  (Yes, they are still there in a sense, as propped up by the US government)
Lehman  “where vision gets built”  (Although they never seemed to ‘see’ the extent of the risk in their situation and didn’t do enough to prevent their firm from going under)    
IndyMac  “you can count on us”  (No, you cannot count on this failed bank but instead on the FDIC, which insured the deposits up to the relevant limits)
Countrywide  the “lender that actually finds ways to make loans”  (Wouldn’t we have been better off if they hadn’t found the ways to make some of the many bad loans they made?)  
Washington Mutual  “Whoo hoo”  (Wow!  The simplicity of this reminds one of the scene in Dr. Strangelove where Slim Pickens rides on top of the bomb)
Fannie Mae  “as the American dream grows, so do we”  (dream?  I'd say more like a nightmare) 
Fortis  “here today, where tomorrow?”  (I’m not going to hazard a guess what fate brings to this bank or its assets)
Citi “Citi never sleeps”  (Huh?)

[Slogans from The Economist, “Ad nauseam”, 2 October 2008]

More Handlesbanken skating fun…
I’m not sure if this is a translation of a real Handlesbanken television ad (or just someone's parody on YouTube) but I came across this humorous spot which takes its inspiration from the real-life story of Australian Stephen Bradbury’s gold medal in 1000 meter short track speed skating the 2002 Winter Olympics.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVaTAFh2Ego 

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