20th September 2009 / Comments (7)
The Banking Revolution
Woman's Own: 21st June 1969
Obviously there's a lot of fun to be had when looking at old advertisements, but occasionally an ad will slap you round the face with a sign saying 'THIS IS THE FUTURE'. This ad from Midland Bank is quite staggering for someone of my age, as it's speaking to my mother's generation, and is absolutely right; the computer age did revolutionise banking. It's quite likely that my mother wouldn't have had a bank account at that point, yet I remember clearly opening my Natwest Piggy Bank account at the age of around 5 in the mid-1980s. Yes, I did collect all the pigs. No, I don't have them all now. Yes, I know how much they're worth now. Bah.
It's rare to find an ad so clearly signposting the future, but it's thrilling when you do.
Comments
I did get all of them, but I remember the last one (think he was called National Westminster), was nicked by a 'troubled' girl on our estate who tried to befriend me. She probably managed to smash it before they became worth anything, though!
was nicked by a 'troubled' girl on our estate who tried to befriend me
I had the same thing between the ages of 7 and 12. A girl who tried to befriend me and stole things, and sometimes later showing them to me broken or in the process of being broken. Or leaving them on walls or the ground where I would see them. Oh look, there's my missing calculator outside our front door, with its polarised screen all black, and tipp-ex all over the keys. It somehow looks like it's been face down for a good while, being scuffed along the ground. Am I glad I brought that to school now!! Cow.
Really nicely written ad, too; straightforward, simple, informative, but without being patronising.
I wish there were more ads like it nowadays.
Oh I had a friend like that too. It's more common than I thought. It used to drive me nuts until one day I did say something to her and never saw her again :/
Forty years later we're nearly ready for 'How a Cheque Book Worked'.
That's a very good point: our kids will be asking us how they worked!
the pigs aren't worth as much as they were, i think at the beginning of ebay they went for crudloads, but the set isn't so rare now everyone on the internets! I had that account too, but only collected the first 3 pigs through saving, we got the 4th pig from a bootsale i think, I can't remember if we ever obtained the last one.
By Sarah T
September 20, 2009 @ 1:58 pm / #
delete / edit