Learning from HSBC

Last week Contentions posted an image of an HSBC Bank ad touting Iran found in an Athens airport. The full ad creative can be found here. It turns out that the ad is part of HSBC’s current global ad campaign.
According to the ad, “Only 4% of American films are made by women. In Iran it’s 25%.” The Contentions commenter asked whether fully literate copywriters are so rare a commodity that the world’s sixth-largest banking conglomerate can’t find one for hire.
“‘In Iran it’s 25%.’ What is?” the Contentions commenter asked. “The portion of American films made by women? Or the portion of Iranian women beaten up by the religious police at some point in their lives?”
But we know what the folks at HSBC Bank meant. Things are good in Iran for women. We can learn something from the Iranians.
I wondered where the folks at HSBC Bank were getting their information and why they were touting Iran, however awkwardly. Jennifer Rubin wondered too. She asked a few questions of the public relations staff at HSBC and she succeeded in getting some interesting answers. Her inquiries seem even to have prompted HSBC to pull the ad from its global campaign.
Check out Rubin’s report, and Ed Driscoll’s comments. It turns out that we might be able to learn something from HSBC after all, if not exactly what the bank intended.
Via Instapundit.