An Australian bank has released the latest in a series of hidden-camera experiments to gauge the honesty of the nation's average citizen, and the resulting video has become an instant YouTube hit.
The video clip, produced by National Australia Bank, follows the fortunes of ordinary people who decide to pick up a pair of 'accidentally dropped' sunglasses outside a shopping centre.
The video starts with the NAB team building a bogus lost-and-found booth where the sunglasses could be returned.
At first it seems like the honest Aussies are going to receive a simple thank you for their selfless gesture... but that is only the beginning.
When handing in the glasses they are asked for their names and the ‘rewarding honesty’ scheme starts to unfold.
As they move through the shopping mall their names and faces begin appearing wherever they turn: on the 'cage screamer' headline of a newsstand; on advertising screens throughout the centre; broadcast on a mock TV news article... even piped onto the icing of a cake.
The most delightful part of the video is the reaction of the people being pranked. It starts off as mild amusement at the 'coincidence' of their name being in a newspaper headline or advertising screen, and finishes with wide-eyed disbelief (and a goodly amount of fear) that they are suddenly surrounded by images of themselves.
Finally, a large banner unfurls with the phrase: 'Honesty shouldn't go unrewarded.'
It doesn't go swimmingly for everyone, of course. In a hilarious payoff to the whole stunt, one man named Han can be heard saying ‘They spelled my name wrong’ while standing in front of a huge digital billboard showing his face and the caption: ‘Thanks for your honesty Hun.’
Each time, when the target returns the sunglasses and innocently gives up his or her name, the NAB team moves with amazing speed to set up the stunt.
'Honest John' looks bewildered to see his name on posters, while two middle-aged women cannot stop laughing as one of them, Marina, starts appearing all around them.
At one point, Marina's incredulous friend exclaims: ‘You’re a star!’
The shopping centre prank is the latest in a string of NAB stunts. Another experiment involved the bank building a coffee stand on a busy Melbourne street, where the barista deliberately gave all customers $5 too much in change for their coffees.
Every single person immediately returned the money.
Re: Lost and found
Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 11:56 pm
by loCAtek
Hilarious!
...but personally, I hate that.
there's a clerk at the supermercado who will ring a bell, and hoot across the intercomm that some has just donated to 'Breast Cancer Research; or sumsuch...
that I avoid like the plague. I'll go to another register and do my donation there, in peace and private.
Re: Lost and found
Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 10:00 am
by The Hen
I love 'Hun'. "They spelt my name wrong."
Re: Lost and found
Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 10:16 am
by SisterMaryFellatio
Its a great ad, but its a bank and their robbin bastards!
...one man named Han can be heard saying ‘They spelled my name wrong’...
No they didn't Hun, they just spotted that you were German.
It was either that or Kraut!
Re: Lost and found
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:40 am
by loCAtek
(Han is Chinese; if he were German, it would be Hans.)
Re: Lost and found
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 1:24 am
by Gob
loCAtek wrote:(Han is Chinese; if he were German, it would be Hans.)
She has to be acting, no one could really be that dumb.
Re: Lost and found
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 1:57 am
by loCAtek
Anyone can see he's Asian and not Hun, therefore he would be Han, not Hans.
It's like how you don't find Spanish Kings, in Germany. You're welcome.
Re: Lost and found
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 2:50 am
by Gob
You're an idiot.
'Hun' was a derogatory nickname used primarily by the British and Americans - officers rather than men - during the First World War to describe the German Army, e.g. "the Huns attacked at dawn".
The origin of the term dated back to the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1900); in despatching his troops to China Kaiser Wilhelm II instructed them in a speech to behave like the Huns of old and to wreak vengeance ("let the Germans strike fear into the hearts, so he'll be feared like the Hun").
The term was widely used by Allied propaganda to suggest the worst kind of conduct.
Hun (hn)
n.
1. A member of a nomadic pastoralist people who invaded Europe in the fourth and fifth centuries a.d. and were defeated in 455.
2. often hun A barbarous or destructive person. 3. Offensive Slang Used as a disparaging term for a German, especially a German soldier in World War I.
Re: Lost and found
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:01 am
by Sean
It was a joke dammit!
Not the funniest ever I'll admit... but bloody hell lo!
Re: Lost and found
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:14 am
by Gob
Another experiment involved the bank building a coffee stand on a busy Melbourne street, where the barista deliberately gave all customers $5 too much in change for their coffees.
Every single person immediately returned the money.
The barista then changed tactics and began insulting customers - asking one lactose-intolerant woman when she ‘decided she had that condition’, and telling a smartly dressed young man that he would no longer fit into his suit if he kept drinking moccas.
Despite the obnoxious comments 91 per cent STILL returned the extra change.
Another experiment involved the bank leaving a wallet stuffed with cash on the street in Sydney. Despite the fact that there was no obvious place for people to return the wallet, 88 per cent of people attempted to do the right thing (return the money, that is).
Re: Lost and found
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:01 am
by loCAtek
Yup, I was jesting back that if he were German/Hun, he would be called Hans.
Hans
1.A male given name of German origin, occasionally used in English.
...but everyone looks German to Gob: Spaniards, Chinese, Atlanteans, Roswell Grays, etc.
Re: Lost and found
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:16 am
by Gob
If you had been "joking", why did you not explain that* when first challenged, instead of trying to explain away your error?
*Please try to indicate where you are "joking", as it's virtually impossible to tell.
Re: Lost and found
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 5:47 am
by loCAtek
...because you insulted me, without seeming to notice;
a) I used a 'know-it-all' geek smiley, to imply humor. This one => (Feel free to check that post, there is no editing done to it, that smiley has been there all along)
b) In order to make my joke, I was agreeing with you and sean, from the beginning that a Hun is a German. No error there.
A real German person would not be named 'Hun' (that's a bit derogatory) but properly named Hans; also a play on the actually person in the video. Still no mistakes, but just a bit of wordplay.
Glad I could help.
Re: Lost and found
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 7:13 am
by Gob
Laughable.
Re: Lost and found
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:56 am
by rubato
SisterMaryFellatio wrote:Its a great ad, but its a bank and their robbin bastards!
Better than Robbin' nice people. Shows discernment.
