Don’t be an Uncle Thomas: This patriotic Union Bank ad wants you to believe in Nigeria once again

Bank adverts are increasingly becoming a means to annihilate competitors in the crowded financial institution landscape. The last we witnessed was Sterling Bank’s viral, symbol-heavy massacre of top banks, with shades and counter-shades. It was fun and also a mess, a direct consequence of the zeitgeist. Now, every bank ad I see makes me hypercritical, combing and searching for hidden meanings or subtext.

But the latest ad from Union Bank, I can announce, isn’t tainted with vengeance, but more in the spirit of Nigeria’s 58th Independence celebrations. The two-minute plus ad features everyday Nigerians navigating through a dysfunctional Nigeria, in a way that resonates heavily. In particular, the scene with the photoshoot where the photographer is about to take a picture and gets interrupted by power outage is unarguably Nigeria’s greatest dysfunction.

Still, though, we are asked to think of the future generation, a country so prosperous that our dreams aren’t truncated but become realities. We are asked to keep believing and pitch in, do our part as citizens and do away with the Uncle Thomas mindset. It’s a moving, patriotic thesis, and also ropes in what Union Bank has signified through the years: ploughing through challenges and refusing to be obsolete and becoming a player in today’s world of digitised banking.

Watch the ad below but you have been warned: prolonged watching can expose you to infectious patriotism.

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